The following Basic Understandings, which are part of the officially adopted TEKS, are helpful in putting the TEKS into a broader context. These Basic Understandings were developed by and used by the TEKS writing teams to assist in their more detailed work with knowledge and skills statements, and they are offered here as optional information for use by local schools and districts. Students continue to build on this foundation as they expand their understanding through other mathematical experiences.
Students use symbols in a variety of ways to study relationships among quantities.
Functions represent the systematic dependence of one quantity on another. Students use functions to represent and model problem situations and to analyze and interpret relationships. Equations arise as a way of asking and answering questions involving functional relationships. Students work in many situations to set up equations and use a variety of methods to solve these equations. Techniques for working with functions and equations are essential in understanding underlying relationships.