Integrated Math 3
Inquiry-Based Integrated Math
With an emphasis on developing skills in problem solving and mathematical procedure, Integrated Math students engage with faculty developed subject-specific learning prompts, questions, readings, and challenges.
Significant class time is dedicated to exploration and discussion, with students learning to research, to evaluate the validity of data, and to identify and learn skills and knowledge required to achieve higher levels of proficiency whilst supplemented and supported one-to-one math labs.
Required learning outcomes, targets, and resulting products are determined on a student specific basis with careful recognition of student strengths, areas for potential growth, and targets both academically and personally.
The majority of students’ written work is in the form of a reflection upon the learning process with an emphasis on journaling questions and ideas that have resulted from the journey.
Integrated Math 3 is a continuation of the material covered in the Integrated Math courses. Students solidify and reinforce core concepts while challenging complex multi-step problems derived from real world applications.
New skills, where applicable, are added to the students' ever growing tool-belt of concepts. Significant focus is assigned to developing particular applications of these concepts including a meta analysis of the strategies and logical thought processes needed for standardized test taking, improved recall of relevant concepts when situationally appropriate, and a strong emphasis on improving mathematical fluency overall.
The First Module of our course will focus on identifying, solidifying, and reinforcing the core concepts requisite for summative HS mathematical fluency. This will include a significant emphasis on deriving math problems from real world situations, identifying the necessary concepts for solution, and rigorous practice with the concept itself. This will include discussion of problem solving plans, word problem translations, words to symbols to solutions, variable representations of unknown quantities, and a focus on improving mathematical intuition with repeated rigorous applications. Some of the more emphasized topics will be fractional operations with or without variable terms, reciprocals and complex division, least common denominator applications with polynomials as denominators, and multiplying and distributing monomials, binomials, and polynomials.
The Second Module of our course will focus on how to accurately identify and utilize mathematical relationships to work towards solutions efficiently and with confidence. This will entail solving interdisciplinary math problems to improve the summative applications of knowledge with a strong emphasis on doing so in high pressure/low scaffolded situations like standardized testing. Students will learn to fluidly recall information from several mathematical disciplines as appropriate. This will involve the applications of concepts like linear equations, slope intercept form, quadratic and polynomial relationships, graphing, algebraic manipulations to solve for variables in any context, rates, ratios, proportions, unit conversion, and conversion factors.
The Third Module of our course will focus on mastering crucial summative concepts from HS math and the real life applications thereof. We will be working with percentages, fractions, and decimals in complex multi-step applications, inequalities, high level rational expressions, functions and function notation, polynomials, exponents and exponential rules, quadratics and their associated graphs, lines, angles, triangles, similarity, congruence, proofs, and imaginary numbers.