Middle School Algebra A

Semester 1: How do you write, simplify, and solve equations? How can you display data so it can be easily interpreted and understood? In Algebra, students learn how to translate phrases into expressions, and sentences into equations and inequalities, expressing them in their simplest forms. Students find solutions to equations by graphing them on number lines or on the coordinate plane. Students learn the value of finding the best tool for the job as they acquire different strategies to use in various situations, such as finding the slope of a line, solving a system of equations or inequalities, or factoring polynomials. Building on this knowledge, students apply transformations to polynomial functions, explore inverses and one-to-one functions, and examine exponential and logarithmic functions. Work in statistics includes organizing and analyzing data; making stem-and-leaf plots; finding mean, mode, and median; making box-and-whisker plots; and recognizing misleading graphs. At the completion of this course, students are prepared for additional math courses in middle and high school.