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Factoring Trinomials (x^2+bx+c): Sometimes You Should Start With b, Not c

Factoring Trinomials (x^2+bx+c): Sometimes You Should Start With b, Not c

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In today’s class we ran into the trinomial This can be challenging for students just learning to factor because they are not familiar with the factor set of 208. Traditionally I recommend that students follow the 10-second rule: If you cannot find the correct factor pairing within 10 seconds, you should move on to listing all factor pairs of c. This would result in the following pairs: That means that students need to try 13 potential factors (1 through 13)…

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Factoring – A New Approach

Factoring – A New Approach

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This semester I have been trying to help my students discover mathematics, rather than having everything coming straight from me. My goal is to get them to think more while also gaining confidence in their own abilities. One topic that has always given my students trouble is factoring trinomials that have a leading coefficient other than 1. Here’s what I tried. We had spent the day before factoring trinomials that did have a leading coefficient of 1, and my students…

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Simulations – #ICTCM15

Simulations – #ICTCM15

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I will be speaking about incorporating simulations early in an intro stats course to help students develop an intuitive understanding of inference well before we actually cover inference formally. I will be discussing two StatCrunch applets that I use. One is the Coin Flipping applet which allows students to simulate gathering samples of qualitative data. The second is a resampling applet that helps students to compare two means. I have added two assignments that I use in conjunction with these…

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Preparing for the New Semester

Preparing for the New Semester

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Spring classes start next Monday. This is pretty much the time I start to get the itch to get back to school, and start thinking about how I will teach my classes, changes I will make, … I always start the same way, by rereading one of my favorite books: Successful Beginnings for College Teaching by Angela Provitera McGlynn. This book is aimed at new college instructors, particularly at commuter schools and community colleges. A listing of the chapters tells…

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Quiz Inspections

Quiz Inspections

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As my students are getting ready for their final exam, I assign a MyMathLab quiz that is connected to a personalized homework assignment. There are 36 questions on the quiz, with 136 related questions on the homework assignment. For each question a student gets right on the quiz, all related problems (typically 4) are removed from the homework assignment. This allows students to focus on the problems they struggled with, which is one of the most important factors in preparing…

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Algebra Final Review Videos

Algebra Final Review Videos

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I have two sets of final exam review videos on YouTube. The first playlist, for Elementary Algebra, can be found here:  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCE703DB5743508D7 The second playlist, for Intermediate Algebra, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL15AA6E8E21593D3D Please feel free to share with students and instructors who can use these. George

Reviewing for a Final Exam – How Long?

Reviewing for a Final Exam – How Long?

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I think it is important to review with developmental math students in preparation for the final exam. I try to shoot for one week to devote for this review, and this semester I managed to get one week plus a day. I find that if I only have a day or two I just work problems at the board in rapid fire fashion while students watch. This week I am bringing in a batch of 10 problems each day, asking…

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