Publisher's Synopsis
With The Power of Mathematics, all learners can gain an appreciation for mathematics as a way of thinking and as a powerful tool for making sense of the world. The Power of Mathematics is designed for use in a general education mathematics course for college students with diverse majors and various levels of mathematical preparation. Designed as a workbook with notes, it gives students what they need in a usable and unintimidating format. The Power of Mathematics contains four modules that are organized so that (1) work in earlier modules support later applications of powerful mathematics in decision-making and societal contexts; and (2) later modules reinforce foundational ideas from earlier in the book. The modules are: The Power of Mathematizing: Students reengage with arithmetic and measurement at a deep level, encouraging productive links between arithmetic and algebraic representations. No gimmicky mnemonic techniques are used; Instead, students build a mathematical foundation and language for the rest of the book. The Power of Proportional Thinking: Innovative approaches using multiple representations help develop the proportional reasoning skills needed to function successfully as a college student and critically as a productive citizen in the society. The Decision-Making Power of Mathematics: Students learn to interpret visual and quantitative information using key concepts and tools in probability and statistics such as simulations, center, and variability. Avoiding black-box approaches, students make use of previous content to explore relevant financial mathematics with problems from loans, mortgages, and savings. The Societal Power of Mathematics: Students use their newly developed mathematical understandings as a tool for identifying, understanding, and solving societal issues. Explorations of topics like voting theory and gerrymandering promote students' active and well-informed engagement as citizens.The Power of Mathematics includes: innovative tasks that require students to justify and explain their thinking, slides with integrated conceptual questions which may be used with learner engagement polling systems such as iClicker, instructor solutions with embedded pedagogical notes, and Skills Check questions that may be used with students in co-requisite support sections. The materials support student learning in virtually any format: large lectures, large lectures with breakout activity sessions, small lectures, and small active learning environments. It was designed to support courses using co-requisite models for supporting college students at various levels of readiness. Students at all levels may harness the power of mathematics.
