Math I
Prealgebra and Advanced Topics – Year 1
Age Level: Grades 3, 4, 5. Location: South View Middle School, Edina. Instructor: Karl Bunday, 2007 Edyth May Sliffe award recipient for middle school mathematics coaching, parent workshop director for Epsilon Camp 2012, 2013, and 2014. Textbook: Prealgebra by Richard Rusczyk, David Patrick, and Ravi Boppana (2011), useful for Year 1 and Year 2 students (may be purchased through our Amazon affiliate link. Dates: (See Calendar, or Home page). Cost: (See Registration page)
Description: Accelerated prealgebra course for bright learners curious about mathematics, with much emphasis on foundations of higher mathematics and many problems selected from mathematics problem-solving collections. The Prealgebra and Advanced Topics course follows a syllabus, in development since 2005, that over two years covers most essential topics in a formal course in prealgebra and mathematical problem-solving contests for pupils of late elementary age, with additional topics from upper-division university-level mathematics. The course lays a foundation for further advanced study of mathematics to the highest and most challenging level, and also delves into topics that are interesting and intriguing and not usually taught in the school curriculum.
On Saturdays during the school year, the 11:00am section will be the "year 1" (Math I) section, beginning the fall term with how to be courageous as a mathematics learner, and continuing with field properties of the real numbers (for example, commutativity and associativity of addition and multiplication, and distribution of multiplication over addition) and their application to intricate mental arithmetic, exponents (including negative exponents), multiples, divisibility tests, prime numbers, greatest common divisors, fraction arithmetic, and word problems related to all of those topics. All ECAE mathematics courses especially emphasize building a foundation for numeracy in adult life, proficiency in secondary school mathematics, and success in university mathematics courses. Problems presented in class are not limited to the course textbook but include problems from many other sources, including problems originally written in Russia, China, India, and other countries.
Placement Test Instructions: The textbook publisher has an online placement test that shows what level is expected for starting the textbook, that is starting Year 1 of the two-year Prealgebra and Advanced Topics (PAT) course. My Course Placement Test illustrates many of the topics that are covered during ECAE’s Math Year 1 class. The Year 2 section of the course assumes most of that content as background. Students can join either the Year 1 or the Year 2 section in the middle of the school year if they are ready.The Course Placement Test prints out as six pages. Calculations are to be done by thinking, or by pencil and paper, without any use of an electronic calculator, abacus, or slide rule. Encourage your child to do as much work, and to show as many steps, on the Course Placement Test as can be done in one hour, skipping ahead to problems farther along in the test if that helps complete more questions. The last question is also important. Once your child is done, please send the completed test by scanning-and-emailing to the instructor.
Link: Summer Sessions