Reply to End 2.0 MCPS math curriculum. List complaints about specific problems.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Specific problem: Algebra I STARTS with exponential equations. I have looked in several math textbooks and have yet to see exponential equations at the beginning of the book. I guess MCPS is smarter than all the others. [/quote]

The Singapore Math textbooks for grade 8 start with exponents.[/quote]

By exponential equations, I was referring to equations where the [b]exponent[/b] is the [b]variable[/b]. Singapore math does not start like that. [/quote]

But the grade 8 Singapore math book is not Algebra I. It's more like IM.[/quote]

No one else starts algebra I with exponential equations.  I guess MCPS knows better. [/quote]

How do you know that nobody else does this? And why is it a bad idea?[/quote]

Best to learn how to work with variables before throwing them into exponents. [/quote]

Exactly and look how hard it is even to raise the distinction in this thread without a muddle.  There are basic terms to get straight before any discussion can begin.  But this is also an example of the curriculum emphasizing qualitative math over computation.

Sure you can talk about the shape of an exponential graph just by plotting the integer points, but this sweeps a lot under the rug.  To do algebra with the function, means studying the inverse, so that it's aiso possible to get the variable out of the exponent.  The inverse function, log, is not introduced for another two years, in alg 2.  And, again, that's in a qualitative way, just plot some powers of the base and get a feel for the graph of log.  Then the following year, pre-calc, students do actual algebra and symbolically move between forms.[/quote]

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