The focus is on solving word problems and reading carefully, and thus the building of algebra skills stems from the need to solve problems in a context, rather than from drill and practice for its own sake. Students learn how to use the graphing calculator appropriately as an effective problem-solving tool. In addition, students do a number of hands-on labs that require them to collect data, make conjectures, and draw conclusions. Topics covered include equations and graphs that are linear and quadratic, distinguishing linear versus non-linear data, inequalities, the basic rules of exponents, simple exponential growth and decay, and other traditional Algebra I topics. The 200-level courses are geometry courses tied to algebraic processes.
Students investigate lines, polygons, and vectors, in both two and three dimensions.
Linear motion is explored, leading to the use of parameters to describe that motion and to an ongoing investigation of optimal paths of travel, an exploration motivating the frequent use of graphing calculators. A dynamic vision of geometry is further encouraged by viewing similarity and congruence through transformations. A study of the concurrence of special lines in a triangle allows for linear data analysis by the use of median-median lines. The investigation encompasses circular motion and the ensuing trigonometric functions, ellipses and hyperbolas, exponential and logarithmic functions, dot products and matrices, and geometry on the surface of the Earth.