Study Skills

Math is definitely a contact sport! Success requires Preparation, Practice, and Persistence.

Prepare:

• Scan the text or watch the videos before class to get a sense of what you'll be learning.
• Work through a couple of the examples with paper and pencil.
• Take good notes and ask questions of your instructor.

Practice:

• Don't skip steps!
• Work problems until the concept clicks. (More than the assigned problems.)
• Make mistakes. This is how we learn.

Persistence:

• Believe you can do this! (You can!!)
• Keep working.
• Ask questions - be THAT student.

Quantitative Literacy

When we look for patterns in water quality data, interpret pheasant population trends, or estimate the number of person-hours required for removal of invasive shrubs in a forest, we are applying quantitative reasoning.

Individuals with high levels of quantitative literacy understand and can create sophisticated arguments supported by quantitative evidence and they can clearly communicate those arguments in a variety of formats, i.e. using words, tables, graphs, mathematical equations, etc.

The field of mathematics provides the tools of quantitative literacy. These are the foundation we rely on to interpret and create quantitative arguments.