Course Overview

The course starts with sequences, revisiting linear and exponential functions, and exploring mathematical modeling through various representations. This leads to analyzing polynomial-modeled situations, their graphs, equations, and arithmetic operations on polynomials and rational functions. Students learn about asymptotes, end behavior, polynomial identities, and the sum of geometric sequences.
Next, students extend exponent rules to rational exponents, solve equations with roots, and are introduced to i, which expands the number system to complex numbers, enabling the solution of quadratic equations with non-real solutions.

Building on rational exponents, students return to exponential functions, establishing that growth by equal factors over equal intervals holds for non-integer lengths. Logarithms are used to solve for unknown exponents, and students are introduced to e for continuous growth modeling. Logarithm functions and their models are also briefly covered.

Students then learn to transform functions graphically and algebraically, consolidating and generalizing previous understandings of adjusting model parameters to fit data. This is useful for studying periodic functions, where students use the unit circle to understand trigonometric functions and model periodic relationships.

The final unit focuses on statistical inference, analyzing experimental data modeled by normal distributions. Students learn to use sampling and simulations to account for data variability, estimate population mean, margin of error, and proportions, and develop skepticism about inappropriately summarized data in news stories.

Algebra 2: Family Support Materials