| 1. |
To provide a meaningful context for gifted students to learn Algebra II and Geometry and Measurement concepts and skills. |
| 2. |
To provide experiences that will encourage the development of mathematical reasoning, problem solving and communication. |
| 3. |
To create an environment that will reflect and reinforce the value of mathematics as a creative human endeavor and as a crucial element in many of the occupations to which gifted student might aspire. |
| 4. |
To engage gifted students in the process of mathematics through the exploration of its history and the people whom have stretched its limits. |
| 5. |
To provide opportunities for gifted students to become proficient with up-to-date technological tools and to use those tools to help develop conceptual understanding. |
| 6. |
To engender in gifted students a sense of confidence and pride in their own mathematical abilities and an appreciation and valuing of the abilities of others. |
| 7. |
To offer collaborative opportunities for students to make sense of mathematics and their relationships with others. |
| Differentiated Objectives for the Curriculum Unit |
- Graphs and identifies ordered pairs in the coordinate plane and relates it to locating one's position on a map.
- With classmates, collaboratively investigates the life and times of Rene Descartes and creates a visual (picture, tableau, puppet show, web page, power point presentations,etc.) of some aspect of Descartes' life; discusses the apocryphal story of his invention of the coordinate plane; considers what characteristics are necessary for making that kind of intuitive leap; analyses who in the class might have those characteristics.
- Distinguishes the different characteristics (slope, intercepts, equations) of a horizontal line, a vertical line and a line that's neither.
- Compares and contrasts the different forms of equations for a line and writes and graphs equations of lines given various information (such as slope, intercepts, points on the line).
- Uses computers and calculators to investigate linear functions.
- With parental permission, views two or three movies/documentaries that portray mathematicians. Compares those portrayals with that of the stereotypical "nerd". Compares the life of a mathematician in today's world to that of mathematician in Descartes' day. Discusses mathematics as a career option.
- Writes and graphs linear equations from data; considers systems of these equations and the implications of their intersection or lack there of.