All of these courses are now being distributed via direct download. If you place an order with us, we will forward your contact information to Mr. Chandler, who will email you a download link/code.
The Home Study Companion: Algebra 2 / Trig lessons, distributed via digital download, are based on Paul A. Foerster’s Algebra and Trigonometry: Functions and Applications. This textbook is available as part of Prentice Hall’s Classics series, or in older editions through various used book sources. The text is a true classic!
Paul A. Foerster has taught mathematics at Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio, Texas since 1961. In that same year he received his teaching certificate from Texas A&M University. His B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and M.A. degree in Mathematics are from the University of Texas. Among many honors, he was awarded the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics Teaching in 1983. He brings to his teaching and textbook writing the insights from his engineering background. His textbooks contain some of the best collections of real-world applications to be found in any algebra textbooks.
The topics covered in this course include Functions and Relations, Systems of Linear Equations and Inequalities, Quadratic Functions and Relations, Higher Degree Polynomials, Complex Numbers, Exponential and Logarithmic Functions, Rational Algebraic Functions, Irrational Algebraic Functions, Sequence and Series, Probability, Data Analysis, and an Introduction to Trigonometry.
Whether or not parents feel comfortable with this material themselves, the students would benefit by being introduced to these topics by an experienced teacher. That is what these video lessons provide. The lessons cover not only new techniques, but new levels of problem solving skills and new models for thinking about practical problems mathematically. All the topics learned in Algebra 1 are deepened and put into an expanded context. This level of material cannot simply be “presented”: it must be taught.
Where appropriate the text introduces computer programming problems to extend pencil and paper solutions and to better approximate real-world scale problems. The Math Without Borders course illustrates solutions of the programming problems using spreadsheet programming. Spreadsheets are a good, transparent way to lay out many kinds of programming calculations. The spreadsheet programs covered here can be created using Microsoft Excel (available commercially) or equally well using the spreadsheet component of the free, open source program suite, Libre Office. (The programming solutions shown on the disk are done in Libre Office, but saved in a format that can be opened with either Libre Office or Excel.)
All of these courses are now being distributed on 8-GB flash drives, which enables Mr. Chandler to make more frequent updates than with DVD ROMS.
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