AP Calculus Assessment

I think it is safe to say math has always been a passion of mine. I remember learning to count to 1000 in first grade. When I was finally able to do it without any help, it was like swimming for the first time, eating the ripe tomatoes I grew myself, or putting together a new song on the guitar. The feeling of accomplishment cannot be recreated. As we get older, this feeling becomes more difficult to achieve. This only increases my motivation and determination to learn something new. AP calculus has been a roller coaster of learning. Despite the struggle and rigor, I learned valuable skills that will help me in my future aspirations. Taking the AP Calculus exam gave me a rush of accomplishment. I have built a knowledge base because I am constantly

Since a public school district’s success is determined by state and national assessment, officials in school systems across the country have sought to make changes to effectively address the academic deficits of students. A push in education over the past couple decades has been the race to Calculus and the belief that this path is necessary for a student to succeed in advanced math courses in college. Although there has been a dramatic increase in the number of students in high school Calculus, enrollment in Calculus 2 at college has remained relatively unchanged for the last two decades (Bressoud, 2004; 2009). Many students who have taken Calculus in high school are arriving unprepared for Calculus in college (Bressoud, 2007).

This school year, I decided to join AP Calculus AB. It was tough for me to decide if I should join or not, especially since I'm going to be taking an AP course. I knew it will be more challenging than basic calculus, and instead of taking math for one semester only, I'll have AP Calc for the whole school year. After days of contemplating, I

In my writing, my goal was to portray my experiences with the online AP Calculus AB course I took last year (sophomore year), in order to demonstrate when I learned some of the most important lessons in my life. Furthermore, through the use of different parts of my personal experiences, I also wished to address the different lessons that I learned; hopefully using the contributions of all of these lessons to arrive at a “final” lesson. To do this, I decided to focus on three main parts: giving the reader context and information behind my initial character/mindset, demonstrating how the AP Calculus AB course influenced that character/mindset, and showing what I learned from the AP Calculus AB Exam. Moreover, I wanted to have a different tone in each of these parts, both demonstrating my different feelings as well as portraying very different “aspects” of myself . For the first part, I decided that I wanted to have a “lighter” tone and focus on how I was excelling at school with ease, because this would contrast clearly with the next part. For the second part, I decided that I wanted to have a deeper mood while seeming confused, because this would further show the contrast between the first and second parts, as well as demonstrating how this truly was the first time I truly learned that lesson. For the third part, I decided that I wanted to begin with a more positive tone, as I had just learned my lesson, but transition into the same tone as the previous

Assessment is an imperative part of the learning process. According to Stiggins and Chappuis (2012), “Assessment is, in part, the process of gathering evidence of student learning to inform instructional decisions. This process can be done well or poorly.” To learn more about assessment I sat down for a one on one interview with Jim Libretti. Coach Libretti is the head coach of the freshman football team at Paradise Valley High School. Also, he is a math teacher.

I experienced by middle and high school math classes not truly recognizing the intrinsic value of them and arrived at AP Calculus AB my junior year of high school holding the same apathy for them. The popular culture and ideology regarding mathematics is that unless a student is going to study engineering, s/he will never use trigonometry, algebra, or geometry. The actual subject matter didn’t matter, only the numerical stamp of progress and success did. I let myself get caught in that train of thinking, and quickly considered mathematics another obstacle I had to grudgingly hurdle to continue my studies.

I won’t accept failure. 2% was how close I was from failing AP Calculus. Calculus class was the only class where I squandered time because I stopped caring. I was willing to accept a D because that was the easiest option. In the end I did not want to accept that because I had something to prove for myself. If I start giving up for a class then that could have an effect on other things that I deem “difficult.”

My mind searching for the answers. What did this mean? I thought to myself. Right now i’m taking my AP Calculus test which I completely forgot to study for. I’m in all AP classes and I honestly don’t understand anything in any of my classes. But if I fail this class, my mom will lose it on me again. Unfortunately this is a daily routine, I fail something, my mom gets on my about it and tells me to try harder, and then yells at my dad about me being so unintelligent. All my life I have been told to get good grades so I can get a scholarship to a good college. My mom wants be the successful one in my family because my father isn’t quite the right type for having success. After getting fired from a lawyer's office, my dad just gradually started

Obstacles can easily change one’s journey in life. I believe I did have to overcome obstacles to succeed in AP Calculus, but they are quite different than those of the characters in the movie. In the movie, basically every character had a large obstacle to stop them from taking the class. For example, Angel was hindered by his activity within a gang. Ana had to deal with her father who wanted her to drop out of school and join the family business. Pancho had to choose between joining the workforce and his possible future as a student. Personally, the obstacles I faced were fundamentally different than those in the movie. For me, I had to overcome obstacles like not understanding the content that we learned in Honors Pre-Calculus the year

In preparation for my next AP calculus test, I began to study every day in hopes of raising my grade. I consistently did my homework and reviewed my notes after school. When test day arrived, I felt more prepared than ever. As I went through the test, I felt familiar with the concepts and confidently went about the problems. A few days passed and my teacher handed back the tests. I slowly turned the paper around and peered at the top; the number 84 peeked out at me. A huge weight lifted from me and a wave of relief came down across.

There is nothing more motivating in Mrs. Arquette’s AP Calculus AB class than doing well on the AP Calculus AB Test. The score is out of 5 and a passing score is at least a 3. By overcoming this test, the student is award college credit as achieving a successful score is the equivalent of prevailing in a Calculus I course in college. Mrs. Arquette wants as many students to do well on the AP Calculus AB Test as possible, and the motivation is set up for a “one for all” instead of an “all for one” structure. Students are encouraged to help each other so they can all attain the goal of victory.

We can view the optimal control problem as that of choosing the best path among all paths feasible for the system, with respect to the given cost function. In this sense, the problem is in nite- dimensional, because the space of paths is an in nite-dimensional function space. This problem is also a dynamic optimization problem, in the sense that it involves a dynamical system and time.

Kenneth’s academic record speaks for himself, he has maintained an adjusted 3.83 GPA in an array of honors level courses. His junior year, he challenged himself in a Dual Enrollment math course, proving he is capable of handling college level math. Gaining confidence after taking that course, Kenneth decided to take AP Calculus. It is our school policy that students wishing to take an AP level course gain approval from faculty within the

Students use way more technology outside the schools and they need this to keep them attentive in class (Lim, 2013). I designed the teaching plan in a way that I tried to use as much technology as possible without making a big change. The application of video conferencing would help students to interact with outside world while sitting in their own class. They would be able to interact with professional mathematicians and get their insights. The use of projector slides to help students, present topics in real life situations would help them make a connection between what they’re learning and their present socio-cultural society.

“My teacher cannot teach math. Why do I need to learn algebra?” These are the common quotes we often hear from high school students. The student believes what current taught in high school not relevant for their everyday life activities is. They’re some validity to their beliefs, but they should not close their minds to math, especially algebra. Algebra is the gateway to higher math like calculus. Why should anyone study mathematics? Calculus prepares students for higher-level sciences, like physics, chemistry, genetics and engineering courses. Calculus is an important and a gateway course to prepare students for higher-level science, engineering and math courses (STEM). Calculus is difficult because all the concepts are abstract and learning these concepts in the traditional ways is always boring to most students. The traditional method of teaching is teacher-orientated presenting the theories in a lecture style manner and reinforcing the concepts by doing homework word problems. It is my understanding that majority of students who have problems with calculus lacks the basic knowledge of algebraic simplifications (factoring) of functions followed by visualization of the process.