Warwick Valley emphasizes the importance of establishing a conceptual understanding of mathematics, and reinforces that understanding with procedural practice. Students first develop their understanding of number sense, and then connect that understanding to algebraic thinking, which includes the ability to recognize and analyze patterns, study and represent relationships, make generalizations, and analyze how things change. The goal is to give students the knowledge and skills to become effective problem solvers who can not only make sense of the equations and symbols being presented to them, but also be able to communicate and reason mathematically.
The District provides a robust mathematics curriculum, including Honors and Advanced Placement courses at the secondary level. This allows students to choose their courses and challenge themselves.
The goal of the mathematics department is to provide students a skill set to become lifelong problem solvers. The High School Math Department makes math relevant to scenarios that may occur in the student’s lives outside of the classroom. These developed skills could be used outside of a math classroom as a lawyer or to pitch a project to a board of directors. For example, in Geometry, Euclidean Proofs are taught, which, at the time, may not seem to matter to students, but what is being taught is how to formulate a clear and concise explanation as to WHY something is true, using facts that they have learned.
The math department also incorporates the use of technology everyday. All classes are given a classroom set of graphing calculators and students have access to the TI-84+ color calculator app on their Chromebooks. In learning how to use the calculators to support them, they learn not only how to calculate but also how to show a visual representation of what is being learned in class (graphs, scatter plots, tables, etc), how to use multiple techniques to answer questions in order to check their understanding, and how to use short-cuts on the calculator to make tedious calculations smoother.
View the Mathematics section of the WVCSD Curriculum Guide here.