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= =  Welcome to my IB DP Mathematics SL course wiki.

Introduction
Mathematics SL is a course intended for those student who wish to be well prepared for any subjects in their further studies at university or college that require sound numerical competency, but in which mathematics is not in itself the aim of the study. Hence Mathematics SL is a course that emphasises mathematics as a technique in the analysis of phenomena that lend themselves to numerical investigation such as psychology (statistics, probability), economics (functions, calculus and statistics) to name but two. While it covers most of the topics offered at HL, it does so in less depth and complexity.

Thus the focus will be placed on the varied uses of mathematical concepts and techniques in analysis, both across the spectrum of a variety of disciplines as well as across cultural and historical boundaries. The assessments are designed first and foremost to allow for the student to competently learn to apply the many concepts and techniques to, what I shall call, “real world” problems, while allowing for some excursions into the beauty of mathematics. Internationalism will be emphasized through considerations of mathematics as a universal language and by placing it in a historical and cultural context (for example along the lines of John D. Barrow's //Pi in the Sky: Counting, Thinking and Being//). In addition, discussion around ISO notation in IB mathematics and Internationalizing problems sets will be part of the curriculum offer to the students.

Course outline
The following gives the sequence of topics which will be covered in this course and a rough break down of time dedicated to the individual topics

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This outline corresponds to the International Baccalaureate Mathematics SL Guide 2008; I recommend you download it and keep the digital file available, it tells you all kind of interesting tidbits on the course, e.g., How long is the exam?, How many exam papers are there to write, how do they differ and how much are they worth? The Guide is this one: [|mSL_guide_2008.pdf].

Resources
While we continue to have a classic class textbook, in this class I am going to integrate a few more online tools.

Firstly, I will use online lectures available through YouTube by the Khan Acadamy. This mode has been on my mind for a while (thank you Karl Fish), and with the Khan Academy this has for me now become unavoidable. Some of the rationale can be found in [|Karl Fish's blog], but also in the March 2011 TED talk given by Khan Academy founder Salman Khan

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In order for us to explore the potential of the Khan Academy, each student in the this course will need to sign up for the Khan Academy. To this is rather trivial
 * 1) Make sure you have @dwightinternational.org email account details, you can log in with this without creating a new Khan Academy account.
 * 2) Go to [|Khan Academy] and sign in with your @dwightinternational.org email details (yes, I said that twice on purpose).
 * 3) Now you need to Add a Coach and follow the instructions you see here:



Assessment
While this may change after we have discussed more on assessment among the faculty, the assessment outline proposed for this two year course is below A few things you will notice. There are:
 * quizzes: these come upon you unannounced, they for you and I to see how you fare along with a topic, they carry no weight in determining your achieved grade;
 * tests: these are announced, typically happen after we have finished a good chunk of the material, and do carry weight in determining your achieved grade;
 * exercises: we will discuss these as we approach them;
 * end of year examinations: these happen, naturally, at the of the first year, they cover all the material of the first year, carry significant weight and are important;
 * IA: these are the formal IB Internal Assessments for Mathematics, we will discuss these as we approach them;
 * Mock examinations: these are practice exams once we have gone through the entire material for the IB final exams.

As a last entry on this page, check out my Expectations page.

Enjoy & success, Arno.