Functions and Change provides an alternative to a traditional college algebra course for students who either will not take another math course or may go on to a business calculus course. The authors wrote this text for the many college algebra students who are poorly served by books that focus on preparing them for a course they will never take?traditional calculus.
- An informal approach offers clear explanations that leave out unnecessary technicalities so that students who are not comfortable with algebra will easily understand the concepts.
- Graphing calculator technology is integrated throughout the text as a descriptive and problem solving tool, and to help students understand abstract concepts.
- Functions are introduced by the "Rule of Four"?graphically, numerically, symbolically, and verbally.
- Diverse Modeling/Real Life Applications and Data reveal mathematics as an integral part of nature, science, and society. This real-world context allows students to check their answers against their own intuition and common sense while also making the topic more relevant and interesting to students.
- New! Chapter Review Exercises help students build their skills to remember key concepts from the chapter.
- Skill Building Exercises precede each exercise set in the text; in this edition these have expanded by approximately 5% per section.
- Key Idea Boxes highlight key ideas for every section.
- Workplace/life skills are covered by giving students plenty of opportunities to use Excel spreadsheets in the text and in the technology guide. This meets the revised AMATYC's 2006 Beyond Crossroads guidelines, which recommends teaching students workplace/life skills.
- Finance applications are now highlighted in Index of Applications
- AnotherLook with enrichment exercises end each section in the first five chapters and is based on market feedback. These optional exercises provide a slight increase in algebraic presentation and symbol manipulation, along with general enrichment or alternative treatments of the material. While written in the same spirit as the rest of the text, the Another Look feature contains more traditional coverage.
- Exercises include more practice setting up formulas, and a wider variety of non-science applications.
Emphasising functions and modelling, "Functions and Change" introduces concepts through applications (in context) instead of through theory. Many exercises are conceptual, requiring thought and interpretation, not just quantitative answers. "Functions and Change: A Modelling Approach to College Algebra" continues to gain market share in the modelling/applications-driven/reform segment of the College Algebra market in each edition. The authors determined the topics by consulting with their colleagues from other departments all over campus (instructors teaching courses in agriculture, biology, business, chemistry, ecology, economics, engineering, physics, political science and zoology). Because the following skills are used most in students' subsequent courses in these various disciplines, the book focuses on giving students confidence in relating sentences to formulas, tables and graphs; as well as facility with graphs, tables of values, and linear algebraic manipulations. Rates of change is a unifying concept. It is also appropriate for alternative courses at the college level, such as "Mathematical Modelling."
This text will appeal to instructors who want an integration of technology, quality real-world applications and an emphasis on modelling.
