Standards: Connecticut has adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as the Connecticut State Standards (CSS).
Course Levels: College Prep Precalculus, Honors Precalculus - Topics are explored in greater depth at higher course levels.
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
In this unit, students review all parts and terminology of the unit circle. Students should understand sine and cosine graphs and the unit builds on graphing the reciprocal functions. Verifying and simplifying identities are addressed including sum and difference.
VOCABULARY - coterminal angle, reference angle, identity
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
This unit covers the different applications of trigonometry.
VOCABULARY - ambiguous case, vector, parametric (honors only), polar coordinates, de Moivre’s theorem
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
This unit includes a review of functions and mathematical modeling. Students practice graphing a variety of functions and analyzing graphs of functions and also practice shifting, reflecting, and stretching graphs. Students work with parametric equations to create functions and find inverses and also use their knowledge of functions to model real-life data sets.
VOCABULARY - piecewise functions, greatest integer functions, limits, discontinuity (infinite, jump, removable), parameters, restricted domain (non-honors)
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
Students are introduced to power functions and their characteristics. Students learn to write power functions, using direct and inverse variations, and also use power functions to model real world applications and solve for the created equations.
VOCABULARY - power function, variation (direct and inverse, constant of variation, upper and lower bounds
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
VOCABULARY - removable discontinuity, end behavior asymptotes, reduced row echelon and inverse, matrices (honors only), partial fractions (honors only)
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
Students use their knowledge of systems of equations from Algebra I and equations of circles from geometry to study various conic sections.
VOCABULARY - conic section, focus, directrix, major and minor axes, eccentricity, transverse and conjugate axes
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
This unit presents students with the fundamental counting principle and how to use permutations and combinations. These formulas lead students to the use of the binomial coefficient in binomial theorem and Pascal’s triangle.
VOCABULARY - fundamental counting principle, permutation, combination, binomial coefficient, Pascal’s triangle, factorials, mathematical induction (honors only), anchor (honors only), inductive hypothesis, inductive step, deduction
PREREQUISITE SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
In the introduction for this unit, students use their prior knowledge of end behavior of graphs using limit notation. This unit introduces the definition of a limit and its properties. Students learn how to analyze limits both graphically and algebraically. Basic concepts of continuity of functions (including piecewise) may be used to help demonstrate the existence of limits.
VOCABULARY - limit, tangent line, difference quotient