"If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries." - Carl Friedrich Gauss
August 4, 2019
Here’s what my colleagues Travis Ortogero, Robert Machemer, and I have come up with as an alternative to expensive, heavy textbooks for our precalculus classes. Some sections are more fleshed out than others. We make incremental improvements as we have the time and energy.
February 20, 2017
I’ve been teaching for 27 years. This morning during a discussion of rational functions in a precalculus class, I had one of those why-didn’t-I-think-of this-years-ago moments, when I found myself drawing a Venn diagram on the board in response to massive confusion about holes. My hypothesis about Read more…
February 8, 2013
This worksheet is made up of a collection of graphs of polynomial and rational functions, challenging students to observe key features and come up with an equation for each. solutions
January 26, 2013
These are the functions that I think precalculus students ought to come to know very very well. Early in the year, I spend five minutes of class having students fill out as much of the first page as they can and then I collect them (but Read more…
A worksheet which gives algebra or precalculus students practice in reading and applying mathematical definitions and thinking about functions presented in various modes Word version
To make groups of 3, cut up these cards, have each student pick one and then find the two others who have the same quadratic function. (Use the Word version to create more rows if you have more than 18 students. I used Wolfram Alpha Read more…
A PowerPoint presentation on Solving Polynomial Equations by Factoring. (Use PowerPoint’s pen tool on an interactive white board to solve the problems on the screen.)