We learned a vast array of topics in this class. The first was about rate of change. In that unit we learned about the growth of an orchard over the course of a number of years. This was a great way to demonstrate the topic and allowed me to gain a better understanding of it all. Our final project showed what we had learned and remembered. Mine is listed below and is about a gingerbread man who is trying to escape a reindeer. The second semester focused on so many different things. We learned about permutations and combinations, then factoring, and even matrices! It was a very interesting dip into a greater array of math. I haven’t tried to go very far in math, but this gave me a taste of what higher levels of math might be like. My favorite unit was the one about permutations and combinations. At the end I really understood how it worked and what I could use it for. I still have questions though and I am currently still a little confused. One of the most difficult parts of this semester was the POWs. Normally I am able to figure something out about a POW and use that to come up with a solution that works. This semester I had at least one POW where I couldn’t solve it. This was frustrating for me, but I managed to work through it by talking with friends about it and explaining what happened and what I did wrong in my descriptions. It was a type of math that I really had to think about and struggled with. My favorite units were the permutations and combinations unit and the matrices unit. The first taught me about how to find the number of options we had for a certain number of variables or units. This could be used literally for determining the number of options for a combination lock. The matrix unit was really interesting to me because it gave me another way to solve a series of problems. We learned how to push through solving equations in sets of two, but the matrix taught us a way to solve equations in sets of three. This is important because you can not feasible graph three dimensions, and four dimensions are even crazier. This semester and last taught me so much about what math can do for me. I don’t think about how I can use math very much, but the idea of being able to think about the most efficient combination of variables is powerful.
Final Rate of Change Problem
We were tasked with creating a rate of change problem similar to our previous orchard POW. I decided to make mine relate to gingerbread people and reindeer, so there is a reindeer trying to eat a gingerbread person. A friend then runs up the hill to save them and I need to figure out who gets to the person first, the reindeer or their friend.