Original Site Title: Appetizers and Lessons for Mathematics and Reason, June 1995 to April 2012. New site title:
Logic and Mathematics Skill & Concept Development How-TOs Site Map || Français: 26 pages
for college students, gifted teens, home-tutoring and K1-12 schooling; and for avid readers not in school

Logic 5 Chapters Arithmetic 10 Steps Algebra 12 Starter Steps & 5 Advanced Steps
Work & Study 23 Tips Geometry 15 Steps Calculus 70 Lessons

Ages 15+: Why study slopes Polynomials Quadratics Why factor polynomials Logarithms Functions
What is similarity Euclidean geometry leanly Coordinates + complex no.s Vectors DC Electric Circuits
Ages 12+: Prime factorization Written work formats Decimal place value Extend arithmetic skills orally
What is a variable 5. Fraction Operations by Raising Terms Solving Linear Equations: Take I Take II


Online Volumes: 1 - Elements of Reason, 2 - 3 Skills For Algebra, 3 - Why Slopes and
More Math
, 1A - Pattern Based Reason, 1B - Skill Development Principles + Troubles

Welcome: Site content may develop critical thinking, improve reading and writing, and build mathematics skills. See online chapters on on logic and pattern based reason.

Teachers: This December 2011, 5-phase framework offers a context for mathematics & logic instruction. Phases 1 to 3 focus on skills with actual or potential value for adult & daily life. College-oriented phases 5 & 4 focus on calculus & preparation for it. Phases 1 to 4 may also serve trades & professions not dependent on calculus.

Site Review: Math resources ... span ... arithmetic, logic, algebra, calculus, complex numbers, and Euclidean geometry. Lessons and how-tos .... provide a good foundation for high school and college ... mathematics. Read more.

Home < Archives < LAMP - Lean Applied Mathematics Program << Skills Chapter 0 Introduction

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About LAMP - It Objectives

LAMP is an acronym for Logic and  Applied Mathematics Proposal. It is a proposal for adult and adolescent instruction that covers mathematics from arithmetic to calculus. 

LAMP divides skill and concept development between three phases: 

  • (Phase I) Mathematics for TCPITS
  • (Phase II) Preparation for Calculus, 
  • (Phase III) Calculus

TCPITS is an acronym for the phrase: the common person in the street

Learning and teaching in each LAMP  will vary between  inclusive and comprehensive forms 

  •  I-LAMP, the inclusive form, aims for an operational command of skills and concepts with a thought-based development only when needed.
  • C-LAMP, the most comprehensive form,  aims for an operational command of skills and concepts with a logically organized thought-based development whenever possible for the sake of completeness, and with references to compensate when not. 

The challenge for mathematics education is to develop skills and concepts in a way that students planning to end their studies gain the skills, confidence and satisfaction sufficient to change their plans. 

LAMP is based on inductive principles for instruction. Those principles require large steps be clearly and explicitly decomposed into smaller steps for skill and concept development, so that student who cannot take larger steps may be given a simpler path to follow when needed.  Each student has a different background and skill level on entering or continuing LAMP.   In LAMP includes directions of the form if the student has not master a skill or concept then try the following steps. Where difficulties are common or not, those inductive principles require LAMP to provide for smaller steps to make the larger steps accessible and feasible.    Time will tell what is possible and what level of intelligence is required to follow the most inclusive and accessible form of LAMP that presently exists. Trial and error may tell suggest how to rearrange the iterative coverage of skills and concepts to make LAMP more accessible. There-in lies or shines the empirical approach to the further implementation of LAMP.  

The challenge for course design and the composition of course materials is to make all as inclusive as possible so that students and teachers not yet comfortable in mathematics have clear and readable explanations and directions to follow. 

Confidence in LAMP depends on whether or not it delivers  operational command of mathematics, the how and/or why, to students, parents and teachers through steps, well-documented and easily understood and followed, in instruction and self-instruction.  

LAMP includes several innovations to make key skills and concepts easier.  Where some students will be empirically satisfied that methods give repeatable, reproducible and verifiable or refutable (correctable) results, others will demand theoretical satisfaction - an explanation of the why. LAMP aims to provide a maximal operational and thought-based command of skills and concepts for minimal effort.  That includes removing artificial challenges - skills and concept not necessary for the immediate and long-term objective of providing an operational command of the how with a minimal, maximal or somewhere in-between thought-based command of why. But minimal effort does not mean no effort. Work is required. Students have to sit down and study. LAMP has to provide material for students, parents and teachers -  not yet comfortable with its skills and concepts.

LAMP is empirical.  LAMP in all its forms starting from column methods for decimal arithmetic emphasizes clear and legible formats for the performance oriented, very much observable and correctable expression and development of ideas and results on paper, step by step.    By drawing and writing diagrams, words and arithmetic or algebraic calculations on paper, one small step at a time,  students, their fellow and their teachers may rely on their eyes to see what has been done, and to decide what comes next. If mathematics be a mental exercise, it is one in which diagrams, words and expressions drawn or written on paper record and express ideas as part of dynamic, observable and readable record. Just as a carpenter works with wood to build concrete objects, the mathematics students and mathematician draws and writes on paper to provide a record of ideas and thoughts in a concrete manner that can be immediate review by the composer and the composer peers for correctness and completeness, or compliance with prior rules and patterns. With that record, the composer and others may see and continue prior chains of reason - the selection and use of rules and patterns one at a time and one after another, alone or in combination, with care or respect for limitations. With clear rules and patterns to follow in the expression and application of skills and concepts, students abilities in mathematics are judged by what they draw and write. Performance or an operational command of mathematics needs to be based on drill and practice sufficient to automate drawing and figuring methods in an observable, legible, repeatable and reproducible manner for the sake of immediate or later review by the  author, peers and teachers.  Reaching that destination, one method at a time, will involve work or drudgery, but it will also  build the skills and confidence of students, and so engage them as they learn how to do mathematics in an observable way that can be reviewed and approved, or corrected. There-in lies a means, a method and an end for mathematics and logic instruction and self-instruction.

LAMP is not a cure-all.  LAMP implementation requires that students have the ability and inclination to sit down to meet and practice skills and concepts, and to entertain, if not always allow, motivations offered in LAMP or coming from a parent or instructor for the necessary practice and drudgery. LAMP aims to provide an operational command of methods, mathematical or logical, first for performing routine calculations, that is, for solving common or routine problems, and second to develop general problem solving and defensive (be prepared) critical thinking abilities for matters met at home, at work and in society.  The identification of common or routine problems depends on society.  Native, aboriginal, first nation societies and other societies with brief contact with the quantitative reasoning skills of larger,  modern, pollution-age, agricultural, manufacturing and city life may find larger society schooling systems in need of adaptation to their needs.  Whence mathematics is not a universal language and rightly or wrongly, the motivations for mathematics will have a large society flavour. 

Part I - Critical Paths For Skill and Concept Development

Most elements of C-LAMPS are present online in this website www.whyslopes.com. To determine critical paths for LAMP in its C-LAMP and I-LAMP forms, in parallel streams we will identify and indicate a thought-based development all arithmetic, algebra, geometry, logic and calculus skills and concepts which could be part of C-LAMP, the comprehensive form of LAMP, along with their thought-based development.  For a critical path for C-LAMP, we will identify the dependence, if any, of each skill and concept on elements of the other streams.   The one further stream not mention consists of applications - mathematical methods for solving routine problems in human affaires that depend on skills and concepts in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, logic and calculus.  The dependence will determine how soon the applications and motivation for studying mathematics and logic can be placed - the earlier the better. 

The indication of thought-based development of skills and topics in this site area will inversely proportional to the coverage in other areas and if not in other site areas, to the difficulties that might occur in that development.  In other words, the indication is  greater and in more details for those skills and concepts not treated in detail elsewhere or whose treatment is not obvious. 

Six chapters 1 to 6 describe in detail and with some overlap arithmetic,  geometry, algebra, logic, calculus and application streams of LAMP. 

  • Chapter 1: Arithmetic - mostly in phase I.  
                    Postscript for later reading- Extrinsic Number Theory
  • Chapter 2: Geometry - in phase I and II
  • Chapter 3: Algebra - in phase I and II.
  • Chapter 4: Logic - at the end of phase I with more in phase II & beyond
  • Chapter 5: Calculus  - the content of phase III
  • Chapter 6: Applications - phase I.

These streams may themselves be composed of parallel substreams. The ordering of parallel streams and substreams there-in depends on which logical dependencies are respected The logical dependencies will greater in the more comprehensive forms and less in the more inclusive forms.  Ordering may also depend on pedagogical estimates of which streams and substream blocks are easier to master. 

Part II -  Possibilities for I-LAMP and C-LAMP

Part I described how to provide a thought-based development of skills and concepts from arithmetic to calculus in a very detailed or full manner. The aim of part II is to assembly those pieces into an inclusive and an comprehensive designs for LAMP based instruction and self-instruction.  

Chapters 1 to 6 in their definition of  LAMP streams or substreams set the stage for developing the most inclusive and the most comprhensive forms of LAMP.  As said above,

  • I-LAMP, the most inclusive and flexible form, and C-LAMP, the most comprehensive, demanding and constrained form.  The inclusive form aims for an operational command of skills and concepts with a thought-based development only when needed.  Where skills and concepts are described instead of derived, there more be flexibility in sequencing than permitted in a more sequence thought-based development.  In other words, a critical path diagram for non- C,  LAMPs  learning paths are always less restrictive than C-LAMP.

  • C-LAMP, the most comprehensive form aims for an operational command of skills and concepts with a logically organized thought-based development whenever possible, and with references to compensate when not. Chapters 1 to 6 describe and specify in writing, the critical path diagram for C-LAMP.

Individual students, teachers and school may learn and teach LAMP between these extremes. There-in lies a lower bound for instruction and, if course materials are sufficiently clear,  self-instruction too. In all cases, critical path analysis of the dependencies indicated in chapters 1 to 6 will possible routes for instruction

Part III: Reflections, Conclusions and Musings

Chapter 8 introduces further LAMP objectives, LAMP musings, and LAMP possibilities including criteria for a mathematics curriculum or course design to enjoy its seal of approval.  Essentially, skill and concept development must be self-contained so that  that teachers and students.

In retrospect, the end, values and methods of mathematics education are culturally biased towards societies which have  employed quantitative skill and concepts  from ancient to present times in their  agricultural, trading, manufacturing and political or religious activities.  Familiarity with those activities provides a context and motivation for primary school mathematics and LAMP phases in all or part. 

Mathematics is not a universal language.  Smaller societies or groups that are surrounded by larger societies are caught in awkward position where the educational systems of a surrounding society may be needed for economic survival. There in lies a catch 22 for a surrounded society. In following the education of the larger society, if the latter is well-done, and not bureaucratically amiss, many of its members may run the risk of assimilation, so that some  will returning to partially preserve the surrounded and threaten culture through an adaptation of the larger societies education system. 

LAMP origins

This proposal for LAMP is stems from inductive principles for instruction met in 1981; from   lessons three skills for algebra, a geometric calculus preview and a logic puzzle on the difference between one- and two- implications invented for my students in fall 1983; on twenty minutes or so of a Richard Feynmann lecture, one of three public presentations at McGill in fall 1989 lecture, in which he describe his subject as the addition and multiplication of arrows in the plane; from the example of guest speakers in mathematics (analysis) at McGill University 1975-83 who show that the exposition of mathematics could be advanced (the hard made clearer) from secondary to research level subjects; from the exploration at this website www.whyslopes.com of ways to understand and explain methods I learnt and met by rote; and from recognition of inductive gaps or shortcomings in the Modern Mathematics Curricula of the period 1955 to 1980 or so,  a curricula I met as a secondary student in 1967.  

From 1967 to 1983 as a student and then as a teacher, I saw gaps in the exposition of my subject but my own studies distracted from the active pursuit of remedies.  From fall 1983 invention of lesson on three skills for algebra, a geometric preview of calculus and the logic puzzle to 1889, I held university professor and college instructor post of short duration in which the expression of interest or ideas in and for mathematics education was impolite.  Writing began in the last few days of 1990 with the aim of informally reporting multiple ideas to educational authorities for review and refinement by my peers and betters in a hit and run manner - the academic job market was difficult and I did not expect a career in it.  Yet I was driven to investigate and consider mathematics education due to the difficulties students  first due to the challenges of calculus - my perception that its syllabus could be re-arranged to make the hard easier, and later due to the realization that the secondary school preparation of high school mathematics might benefit from my fall 1983 lessons and their expansion. 

On meeting the 1989 and the later year 2000 standards and principles of the US National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, I read them  in the hope of finding a reason to stop writing of seeing my exploration of ideas and concepts was redundant.  From say 1992 to the present I have not read Mathematics Education Journals due to their focus on delivery style matters or petite content issues, while finding  considerations of content issues appeared to be as difficult as looking for a needle in haystack. 

In retrospect the modern mathematics curricula of the period 1955 to 1989 which I once favored and tried to make more accessible or inclusive in my writings did not address the algebra exposition gap that existed in its time and before, and its introduced further gaps and barriers in mathematics instruction as its nominally support of the rigorous and context-free (intrinsic) development of Modern Pure Mathematics was not rigorous, included extrinsic mathematics in its development of Trigonometry, Calculus and before that Euclidean Geometry, while inconsistently allowing the decimal representation of numbers in arithmetic, but not sanctioning that representation nor exploiting it in its development of mathematics from algebra to calculus.  In other words, the Modern Mathematics Curricula, the implementation I saw in my education, took steps too large in the development of algebraic skills and concepts alone and in further subjects, required decimal arithmetic but avoided decimals in the statement of its axioms for real numbers and in its formal discussion of limits, continuity and convergence in calculus, a decision and epsilon-delta abstraction that complicated comprehension; while the use of diagrams in trigonometry to define sine, cosine and tangent functions and the use of diagrams to imply that 1 was the limiting value of  (1/x) sin (x) as angle x measured in radians approaches zero  fell into a gray area - the extrinsic handwaving development of mathematics which departed from the instrinsic (axiomatic) development of Modern Mathematics. 

LAMP Advantages

Algebra: The LAMP proposal provides a clearer exposition of algebra with the aid of geometry and words before and besides symbols.  LAMP provides smaller and clearer steps from the start of algebra to the multiple full-strength deployment of algebra in advanced calculus.  That by itself should justify the study of LAMP ingredients in the rest of this website www.whyslopes.com, if not the adoption of LAMP itself. 

 Mathematics Extrinsically

Modern mathematics curricula were not only intrinsic, they were extrinsic as well in contradiction to a nominal intrinsic nature, a nature with full compliant, a pedagogical impossibility.   

Before the advent of modern mathematics and its intrinsic, context-free and logical development of skills and concepts from arithmetic to calculus and beyond, many elements of mathematics were well-known. They were implied by drawing and figuring practices in say an empirical manner with some  uncertainty due to the possibility of drawing misleading diagrams and more uncertainty due to the lack of clear or absolute logical structure for figuring from arithmetic to calculus.  LAMP pushes for an operational command and an operational (extrinsic) development of skills and concepts. 

Modern mathematics starting with the ZF axioms 1903-5 provide a more secure but in retrospect not an absolutely certain framework for the theoretical or logical development of mathematics from assumptions about sets to an intrinsic (axiomatic), context free/independent codification of the properties of real and complex numbers, and a development of calculus methods.  Following that path requires a strong algebraic-deductive maturity.  

The Modern Mathematics curricula 1955 onward introduced the second part of that path into secondary and primary mathematics with axioms for real numbers as an intrinsic starting point.  But the exposition of geometry, analytic and Euclidean, and the development of trig and calculus also involved the use of geometric reasoning or diagrams in a manner that departed from the pure intrinsic development.  That reasoning and diagrams represent an extrinsic viewpoint of mathematics.  Further the decimal representation of real numbers was required for arithmetic in algebra, trig and calculus but not mentioned and hence not  explicitly sanctioned in the modern mathematics curricula assumptions about real numbers. LAMP is an extrinsic successor with a more inclusive and consistent thought-based development

LAMP  extrapolates from counting, drawing and figure practices, an extrinsic development of  real and complex numbers, of trigonometry, of calculus in manner equal in rigor to that present in the extrinsic parts of the 1955 onward, modern mathematics curricula. The development also includes an applied mathematics or extrinsic view of the decimal representation of real numbers.  The discussion of limits, continuity and convergence in calculus begins with that decimal representation and the question of error control in the calculation of expressions or functions.  LAMP includes set notation and concepts where that aids comprehensions.  See its development of counting methods, probability theory and function concepts. 

C-LAMP after extrinsically deriving properties of real (and complex numbers) describes those properties as axioms in algebraic manner using set notation and concepts. LAMP treatment of trigonometry like the modern mathematics curricula is based on an extrinsic viewpoints. But LAMP relies on its extrinsic development of two ways to multiply complex numbers to speed the development of unit circle and right triangle trigonometry, and in particular speed the derivation and verification of trig identities, make them less of a challenge and more accessible-inclusive. Easy consequences of the two ways includes another proof of the Pythagorean theorem, and trigonometric formulas for dot and cross-products of vectors in the plane when the latter defined using rectangular coordinates.  On a less rigorous note, LAMP exploits the idea that partition of a rectangle into sub-rectangles gives two ways to compute the original rectangles areas to geometric describe and generalize distributive laws for multiplication of non-negative, and so suggest column methods for the multiplication of polynomials and the multiplication of whole numbers using  decimal representations.  From arithmetic to calculus, C-LAMP offers an operational command of skills and concepts, along with extrinsic thought-based development of those skills and comprehension.  

The thought-based development of LAMP is based on suggesting and using rules and patterns, one at a time and one after another, alone or in combination.  LAMPS logic mains deals with the direct use rules and patterns of the form  B IF A (one way implications) and of the form B IF and ONLY IF B (two-way implications).  The terms one-way and two-way stem from a 1989 lesson in which a student name Flo made a comparison with one- and two-way streets.  I said YES and adopted her implied terminology for the rest of that lesson.   LAMP students will be encouraged to see the difference between the two forms.  Here I advocate using the form B IF A in place of or besides the for equivalent form IF A THEN B to help students see the difference between the one- and two-way implications. Here I may use the word   WHEN as an alternative to IF.  Capitalization is optional.

The indirect use of logic in LAMP is limited to the contrapositive form   (Not A) IF (Not B) for implication rules B IF A  in (a)  the discussion of the zero product law for whole, real and complex numbers in the precalculus element of LAMP and in (b) the calculus divergence of a series test: If the n-term does not tend to zero as n increases then the series diverges.    LAMP employs the decimal representation of nonzero whole numbers and the idea that the area of a rectangular will not be zero to first suggest that the product of nonzero numbers is nonzero, and hence to suggest from the polar 

Communication, Reason
and Problem Solving

LAMP and constructivism differ.

LAMP development recognizes that students and instructors may have private thoughts and that direct mind reading is not possible.  But people can draw and write their ideas on paper and so provide an observable, repeatable and reproducible record of their thoughts for peer review, correction and refinement.  While we may speak, hear, read and write words in an essential one dimensional, discrete, sequential manner,  the use of diagrams and column methods in mathematics, and the reading and writing of arithmetic and algebraic expressions with fractions, superscripts and subscripts,  record and communicates ideas in a two-dimensional manner, a manner awkward to read aloud in a sequentially, yet a manner that can be seen, if not understood, in a glance.  The drawing of diagrams and the drawing or writing of expressions with horizontal and vertical elements provides a visual record of ideas and 2D visual extension of our memories.  Whence steps too complicated for an individual to do mentally may be done and recorded on paper for all, including the doer, to observe and check.  While memory and mental agility is a plus in any subject, mathematics is based on the communication of ideas on paper using words, diagrams and linear or two-dimensional, arithmetic and algebraic expressions, ideas that can then be followed and checked by the doer and others for the sake of immediate or future self- or peer-review and, if need-be,  correction.  

Mathematics is a discipline or art form based on an observable forms of communication of ideas and reason. Instruction can suggest or impose standards to aid and speed  communication and reasoning. And that good notation and clever or standard presentation may aid the on-paper record and mastery of mathematics.  The constructivist suggestion that student thoughts are for reading ignores the deliberate and systematic development and verification of concrete, observable, on-paper communication and reasoning.  In this, drill and practice may be needed, will be needed, for students to see the need to follow steps in a method for solving a routine problem in a way that can be reviewed later or immediately by the doer and by peers in the form of fellow students, tutors, parents and teachers.  Meeting methods or strategies for solving problems of a routine nature is one motivation for mathematics and logic education.  Precision in reading and writing is further necessary to understand, select and apply a strategy in logical manner. Meeting methods or strategies for solving many problems of a routine nature in repeatable, reproducible and defendable manner (see communication0  provides a base for routine and non-routine problem solving in an observable manner that the doer and peers may review to approve or correct.   The application and development of patterns, rules and laws in society is based on the latter.  Familiarity with earlier methods, their origins, benefits and limitations, provides a better starting point than ignorance for problem solving.  Non-routine methods for solving problems should be explored only when routine methods are not known or are not satisfactory.  That being said, the problem solving abilities of students can be tested and expanded by giving routine problems just beyond the reach of their present knowledge for them to investigate.  Finally, open problems in society may still abound and may be given to develop the critical thinking and to develop an appreciation of the limitations of existing lines of thought, but there is a still a need to provide drill and practice with routine problem solving methods, so student can tackle common or routine problems in an automatic manner, without going into research mode. 

Constructivism with its assertions that student comprehension is not observable; that testing is not reliable - students may forget; that following rules and patterns to arrive at conclusions is not a genuine nor reliable form of reason all point to a pre- or post-empirical view of knowledge and the formal or informal peer review process present in disciplines striving for objectivity: law, science, mathematics, technology. Allowing constructivism with those elements dominant in charge of education in the latter disciplines is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house, and telling it to guard the chickens.  There-in lies a contradiction.  On the other hand, constructivist ideas for engaging students may be worth exploring and testing in an empirical fashion. 

coordinate introduction of products, that the product of nonzero complex numbers is also nonzero. C-LAMP's lean treatment of Euclidean geometry, assumptions and theorem employ one and two-way implications.  That being said, mastering the difference between one and two-way implications may lead students to precision or greater precision in reading and writing in their studies and in their present or future workplaces. 

The math-free discussion of logic in LAMP, an optional part, identifies proof by absurdity with an elimination of possibilities due to their immediate or implied inconsistency with prior knowledge or axioms. The proof by inconsistency argument appear to be of value in (a) criminal detective work - an alibi eliminates a suspect from further suspicion; scientific detective work where a hypothesis or its consequence are inconsistent with prior knowledge or expectations; and (c) in mathematics where tentative assumptions or their consequences are inconsistent with prior assumptions. In reading a few detective stories in the hope of finding literary examples of proof by absurdity, contradiction or inconsistency,  I saw endings based on revelations instead logic, endings which the chief inquirer would reveal facts or observation not previously found in the text to imply conclusions to arrive at conclusions, all in a I told you so manner.  The exposition of logic in LAMP may lead students to appreciate the benefits, origins and LIMITATIONS of rules and patterns.

Finally, LAMP may develop the algebraic-logical maturity necessary for the calculus development and beyond that, for an optional study of modern mathematics by university students.  

Secondary Mathematics for Ages 11+, A Practical Approach for home-tutoring or -schooling, or for schools & colleges with local curriculum control. Study how to include site content - its skill development how-TOs and innovations into present or future lesson plans - some reading required.

Road Safety Messages and Questions: When and why should you face traffic when walking along a road or cycle path? Is it a good idea to hang limbs outside of cars etc? What gives more protection in a crash: a car, motorbike or bicycle? See too, the BBC-Belgium story Texting and Driving - texting & the impossible test - the article links to a gruesome utube video on the subject

The Logic of Injustice: How Texas sent an innocent man to his death - The wrong Carlos. Some judgments are irreversible. Procescution: Where and when prosectors play to win rather than for justice, guilt beyond a reasonable doubt goes unrespected due to prosecutors who putting winning first, those innocence before the law may be convicted. Some procescutors offices in continuing to accuse after a pardon due to reasonable doubt or innocent being shown, may sucessfully oppose compensaton for false convictions by asserting a pardon individual is still under suspicion. Then the pardoned individual or the latter's estate is not compensation for years or decade of improper or false imprisonment, or for execution. Site chapters on Logic
and some in Pattern Based Reason may slowly lead to greater precision in reading, applying and writing laws.

May 2012, Composition Starting: Pre-School and Primary Mathematics - Quantitative Skills, An Intellectual View, Feedback Welcome:

The 8 Most Popular Site Inlinks

20 Times Table - the most popular site page - popular pages - unexpected.
Fractions & Ratios - with lesson on raising terms to introduce & justify times, division & comparison as well addition & subtraction
Parent Center - See below
Volume 1, Elements of Reason - Intro to all site books.
What is a Variable - best for ages 13+
Written work formats for Arithmetic and Algebra - a skill method and standard!
Complex Numbers Visually - best for ages 13+
Natural Logs, Exponentials, Powers, Roots

Division of Labour: This site offers advice and directions with pointers to resources elsewhere, if known, when they help or lessen the need to write more.

Parent Center: Help your child or teen learn:

Parent-friendly Work Booklets for ages 3+ to 13 Use these or others to check or build skills. Other booklets are available but these booklets allow parents unsure of themselves in mathematics to help their children. The selection acquired in Canada is published in the USA. So it has a US orientation. In retrospect, the selection shows parents what to check with the booklets or by other ways, the choice is theirs. But in retrospect, the selection does not cover integral and fractions liquid weights and measures - ask the publishers to correct that! For ages 9 to 12 say, parents may compensate by showing boys and girls how to use weights or mass, and further measures in food preparation. Beyond that children may be shown how to measure and calculate angles, lengths and areas [proportional amounts too] directly or by using maps and plans drawns to scale. Learning how to gather and measure all the ingredients, pots and pans for a dish or a meal, along with cleaning up sets the stage for like activities or experiments in science courses, and in developing organizational skills, gives boys and girls a head start. Good luck. At the other extreme, more comprehensive than light, if your motto is McCainian: drill, drill, drill then Toronto mathematician and actor John Mighton's jump math organization has jump math workbooks for at least grades 3 to 8 for at-home and in-school use - training sessions for teachers available. Jump math has been expanding to cover older students. Jump Math Samples: plus Fractions for Grades 3-4 & Grades 5-6 [Read] Free Resources grades 1 to 8 [unread - likely to be good]. and

Mathematics Skills For Ages 3 to 14 - technical!

Skills with take home value - A few ideas

Basic skills include time-date-calendar Matters; money matters; map, plan and scale diagram matters;counting, measuring and figuring; decision making with logic and likelyhood; being careful and being aware of the domino effect of mistakes; reading and writing with precision.

Is your child able to add, subtract and multiply amounts of money, work with fractions, work with clocks and calendars, work with maps and plans, and measure length, weight-mass and volume? Schools may promote your son or daughter without providing basic skills in reading, writing and arithmetic.

Arithmetic and Number Theory Skills

Algebra Starter Lessons

1 Working With Sets
2 Formula Forward Use - Evaluation
3 Solving Linear Equations - Skip first step with students able to solve 1 eqn in 1 unknown.
4 Computation Rules and Function Notation
5 Real Numbers
6 More Less Greater Than Inequalities and Comparison
7 Axioms Logic and Equivalent Equations
8 Unifying Theme For Algebra
9 Proportionality Backwards and Forwards
10 Examples of Algebraic Reasoning
A Origins of Counting and Figuring Methods
B Real Numbers Extrinsic Development


Site coverage of formuala evaluation format, of computation rules and axioms, and of the forward and backward use of formulas and proportionality relations lessens the amount of natural talent needed to understand and explain algebra.

Geometry - maps plans trigonometry vectors

1 Maps Plans Measurement
2 Euclidean Geometry - Constructions + extras
3 Cartesian and Polar Coordinates
4 Lines and Slopes Take 1
5 What is Similarity
6 Trigonometry first steps
7 Complex Numbers
8 Unit-Circle Trigonometry
9 Lines and Slopes Take 2 with tangent function
10 Intersecting Straight Lines and Transversals
11 Parallel Straight Lines and Transversals
12 Function Translating and Rescaling
13 Vectors
14 Degrees to Radians and Radians to Degrees
15 Arc or Inverse Trigonometric Function

Pre-Teen and young teen mastery of skills and practices which should be common with map-plans-diagrams drawn to scale, contour interpretation included, has actual or potential take-home value for daily- and adult-life in solving routine problems. Elevating some practices to principles, axioms or postualates, provides a base for analytic and Euclidean geometry, an analytic view of similarity, and an efficient mastery of trigonometry and complex numbers. Right triangle trigonometry provide an analytic alternative to solving geometric problems by drawing diagrams to scale.

More Algebra

Natural-Logarithms Exponentials Powers Roots
Five Polynomial Operations
Quadratics Geometrically
Functions
5 Factored Polynomial Sign Analysis Examples
Rewriting algebraic substitution as function substitutions

The first topic leads to a full high school level theory for the forward and backward mastery of growth and decay models and for definition, range and domains of radicals, roots and powers. The next two topics make quadratics and polynomials easier to learn and teach. Site coverage of functions turns vertical and horizontal line rules into computation methods for evaluating functions.

70 Calculus Starter Lessons

Calculus Lessons Elsewhere:

  1. How to Ace Calculus: Street Wise Guide - Mostly Text.

  2. Flash Video for Calculus Phobics

They cover basic topics in ways likely to complement your notes, your textbooks and site material. When Goldilocks trespassed in the house of the three bears, she found three bowls of porridge, two not to her liking, and one just right. Different bears have different tastes. As invited guest here and elsewhere, if one or more explanations is not to liking, try another. It may be better or just right.

Unsolicited Advice

Learning to do and high marks if it comes to easy is often deceptive - light rather than deep. For that reason, students with learning difficulties determined not to let it get in their way may go deeper and farther than those with none. High marks, if the come easy, may be deceptive - provide a too light and not a deep mastery. That could have been your problem in secondary school, one that leads to comprehension shock or difficulties in calculus and more generally in the first year of college. Bon Appetite.


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Home < Archives < LAMP - Lean Applied Mathematics Program << Skills Chapter 0 Introduction

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Logic-Reason for all
Careful Thinking
Chains of Reason
Mathematical Induction
Responsibility
Bodies-of-Knowledge

Arithmetic - Ages 10+
1. Deciml Place Value - fun
2. Decimals for Tutors
3. Prime Factors - quickly
4. Fractions + Ratios
5. Arith with units - science

Geometry
1 Maps + Plans Use
2 Euclidean Geometry
3 Rct +Polr Coordinates
4 Lines-Slopes [I]
5. What is Similarity
Algebra Starters - the base
1. Better Work Format
2. Solve Linear Eqns
3. Computation Rules
4. Axioms, Item 3 Viewpnt
5. Formulas Backwards
More Algebra
Logarithms-ax & m/nth roots
Five Polynomial Operations
Quadratics Geometrically
Functions || Vectors too
Arith. Skill Check+Answers
Calculus Prep/Preview
What is a Variable
Why study slopes
Why factor polynomials
Complex Numbers
Limits + Continuity

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