Accelerated Math 7 Course Description

In Accelerated Math 7, students will begin by working with data and probability.  They will conduct simple experiments to determine experimental probabilities, calculate theoretical probabilities in simple situations with a small number of equally likely outcomes, calculate measures of central tendency, as well as interpret bar graphs, line graphs, circle graphs, line plots, and stem-and-leaf plots. 

Students then move into understanding expressions.  They will manipulate expressions and investigate writing algebraic expressions and formulas that relate to specific situations.  Then students will be introduced to the distributive property, as they become familiar with concrete models, they are introduced to symbolic representations using flowcharts and tables.

Now students move into working with geometry in three dimensions.  They will use blocks to build patterns and use algebraic expressions to describe their patterns.  They will describe the number of blocks in each stage of their patterns as well as the number of blocks added to go from one stage to the next.  Students will explore the relationship between surface area and volume.

Next, students work on gaining an understanding of the product, quotient, and powering laws of exponents.  They will investigate exponential growth and exponential decay in both abstract and real-world situations as well as work with powers of 10 and learn how to express large numbers in scientific notation.

Students will then move into working with signed numbers (negatives).  They will be introduced to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of negative numbers.  Graphing on the coordinate plane is introduced, and students learn how to calculate lengths on a coordinate graph using the Pythagorean theorem and the distance formula.  Finally, students learn to evaluate expressions involving negative exponents.

Students will complete the year looking at linear relationships.  They will begin learning about rates and how to represent them in words, tables, symbolic rules, and graphs.  Then they relate speed to the slope, both positive and negative, of a graph of distance over time.  Students learn to use change to see if a pattern is linear or not, graph the relationships in the pattern, learn how to determine the symbolic rule from the graph, and how to predict the graph from the symbolic rule.  After being introduced to the standard form for the symbolic rule for linear relationships (y = ax + b), students are introduced to techniques for determining a and b in the rule.