Logic and Integrated 3A classes are in development

The math department has been coming up with new ways to teach math for about three years. New classes present many challenges to students and teachers alike, and now, the arrival of a new course is near in the future.

This year, junior and sophomore students in the Integrated Math Program who are looking to take AP Calculus in the following year have the option to enroll in the new class called Integrated 3 Advanced (3A). This course was created to combine both Integrated 3 and Pre-Calculus content into one class, making it possible for students in Common Core to skip the Pre-Calculus class and move directly to AP Calculus.

“Integrated 3A will be the hardest math class you’ll take on the campus, it is two years of math condensed into one,” said department chair Tommy Maloney.

The program has offered a challenge to students who are interested in math and are willing to push themselves. Like all advanced courses, Integrated 3A is meant to test a students’ willingness to try new things and better prepare them for college.

Students in the past have complained that Common Core Math was not “challenging” them enough, but this new, advanced course has offered students just the difficulty they were looking for.

“Many students complain that the new math system is difficult to understand, but I have heard that the previous system was even more challenging… it really just depends on how you put the time in to understand the material,” junior Ingrid Wells said.

To add onto the classes offered at CVHS, there has been planning for a new course in Logic that students who have taken Integrated 1 could take. This class would be a combination of numerous topics, such as Philosophy and English, thus creating new and interesting curriculum.

“I loved it,” said math teacher Anissa Gerdts about her feelings toward the presentations on Logic that Stanford had given to teachers and professors. Gerdts thinks that Logic could be offered as an “alternative” class to students struggling in regular, mainstream math, or to those done with all math classes offered at CVHS.

“Students might struggle,” Gerdts admitted, because the class “covers so many different themes and subjects,” but it also “offers potential power to its students” by helping them form good arguments with the knowledge they will be learning.

The department does not yet know who will teach Logic but math teachers hope to make the class a reality in the next few years.