Math 1100 Algebra I

PURPOSE OF MATH 1100

The purpose of all of the developmental mathematics courses is to support student success academically and beyond by advancing critical thinking and reasoning skills. Specifically in Algebra I, as a team, we will create and critique explanations and justifications.  We will also determine which tools/strategies are needed to complete an argument.  A theme throughout the semester is to examine statement to determine if it is sometimes true of always true.  Then justify the claim with examples if the statement is sometimes true or complete explanation of every possibility if the statement is always true.

The Developmental Math Program in the Department of Mathematics at Western Michigan University offers Math 1100, a mastery-based algebra course covering the arithmetic foundations of algebra, properties of real numbers, linear equations and inequalities and systems of linear equations.

This course serves solely as a prerequisite course.  Math 1100 does not satisfy any essential studies requirement.

COURSE INFORMATION

• Course syllabus
  • Attendance policy
  • Class participation points rubric
  • Course notebook
• Resources
  • graphing calculator directions (TI 83/84)
    • Calculator basics
    • Graphing basics
    • Graphically solving
    • Scatter plots and linear regression
  • Grid paper or select a size
  • Tips for success

EXAM DATES FOR FALL 2024 BY EXAM NUMBER

1. Friday, Sept. 13; 25 minutes
2. Friday, Oct. 11; 50 minutes
3. Friday, Nov. 1; 25 minutes
4. Friday, Nov. 22; 50 minutes

If you are unable to attend class on any exam day you must notify Dr. Eisenhart (269) 387-4117 or (269) 873-8194 before the exam, so that she can assist you in a timely manner.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE BY WEEK NUMBER

If your class time starts at 11 am or earlier, class will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 22.  Plan to start Thanksgiving recess after class.

1. Aug. 28 through Aug. 30: Course info, classroom environment, sometimes always
2. Sept. 4 through Sept. 6: Sometimes vs always, commutative property
3. Sept. 9 through Sept. 13: Equivalent expressions, distributive property, expanding and factoring, and  Exam 1
4. Sept. 16 through Sept. 20: Understanding fractions with the distributive property, converting from percent change and growth/decay factors, and efficient ways to handle multiple growth and decays
5. Sept. 23 through Sept. 27: Converting form growth and decay factors to percent change, modeling percent change to predict or evaluate, and connect back to always/sometimes
6. Sept. 30 through Oct. 4: Solve and evaluate in context and solving equations symbolically
7. Oct. 7 through Oct. 11: Analyze different strategies for solving equations, conditional, contradiction, identity, literal equations, and Exam 2
8. Oct. 14 through Oct. 18: Solving systems of equations with substitution method and fall break
9. Oct. 21 through Oct. 25: Eliminations vs substitution for solving a system of equations and definition of a function
10. Oct. 28 through Nov. 1: Practical meaning of coefficients and constants of three forms of a line, modeling lines from graphs, context and tables of value, and converting equations of a line into different forms: point-slope, slope-intercept, and standard form, and Exam 3
11. Nov. 4 through Nov. 8: Most efficient form of a line for modeling a given linear context, convert between table of data, graph and symbolic form of a line
12. Nov. 11 through Nov. 15: Characteristics of a good graph, using models to predict and evaluate, and solving graphically
13. Nov. 18 through Nov. 22: Adjusting view windows to see important characteristics, What characteristics determine the number of solutions for a linear system of equations, and  Exam 4
14. Nov. 25 through Nov. 27:   linear or not, and Thanksgiving recess  
15. Dec. 2 through Dec. 6: Given a context determine if it is linear, exponential or neither and given a table of values determine if it could represent a linear function, exponential function or neither
16. Dec. 9 through Dec. 12:  Final exam  in our regular classroom

LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW

Monday, Oct. 28 is the last day a student can process an official withdrawal from a class to avoid a failing grade.

ALGEBRA VIDEOS

There are many online videos on Algebra I topics. As with anything viewed on the Web, one should first sift through and determine which information is of value and actually correct. The director of the Developmental Mathematics Program recommends Algebra I students view the Khan Academy videos for Pre-Algebra and Algebra I.