High school math after algebra, geometry, and consumer math?

Question:

"I am a homeschooling mom, with two children still at home. We use Switched On Schoolhouse almost exclusively. My son will be a senior this fall. He took Algebra 1 and geometry but was against taking trig. I had him take Consumer Math this year and I am trying to find him something for his senior year. He is not leaning towards college, but perhaps a tech school. ANY advice you can give will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!"

Well, if you don't want to do trig or algebra 2, consider the book Mathematics, a Human Endeavor: A Textbook for Those Who Think They Don't Like the Subject.

This book by Harold Jacobs covers a wide range of mathematical topics, aiming to show students how interesting math can be. The topics include for example number tricks, inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning, number sequences, functions and their graphs, large numbers and logarithms, polygons and symmetry, mathematical curves, probability, and topology.

Jacobs always gives you problems where you have to investigate and find out patterns. He aims to minimize the usage of formulas, shows all kinds of interesting ideas and tricks, and thus lets the student fall in love with mathematics.

More info:

Harold Jacobs Mathematics Human Endeavor Curriculum

Review by TOS

Review of Harold Jacobs books by Susan Richman.

Mathematics, a Human Endeavor at Amazon.


Comments

AJU5's Mom said…
Another option would be statistics. I actually teach math at a community college, and there are some homeschoolers in our classes. If he is against statistics, try a liberal arts math class (survey of math, etc).
4:54 PM, June 23, 2008
Anonymous said…
symbolic logic:
the most important math
that nobody wants to teach ...

jacobs was hugely influential
(and richly deserved to be)...
there are any number of
"math for poets" style books
nowadays with a similar flavor
but it was one of a kind in its day.

i note that the third edition
lists at over eighty bucks, so
let me take this opportunity
to beg you *not* to get it ...
take the kid to a big box bookstore
and find the "math" section
(it'll be small). look for
stuff from dover pubs in particular.
i'll bet there's *something*
in there you'll both find worthwhile
for under $25; probably several.
try a few of those.
3:16 PM, June 24, 2008
Jeff said…
What book did you use for your consumer math class?
4:15 PM, August 06, 2008
Anonymous said…
What is a tech school? The "Tech school" my husband went to is now a university, and he studied calculus with applications there. Have you seen the programmable graphing calculators they have now? My husband got through calculus with that!

Perhaps you and/or your son could do more research on what math he needs to go to a tech school.
It just sounds like you are making decisions for him that will not get him into a tech school, if that he is cut out to do. Consumer Math is for everyone. If he doesn't like trigonometry, maybe he doesn't like technology and/or the textbooks that teach them.
www.askdrmath.com is a good place to look for tracks in math to take. Also www.nctm.org

Hope this helps :)
2:46 PM, August 30, 2011
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