Math at Bay

By Bree Pickford-Murray

Many people think math is like a ladder: you climb one rung to get to the next, always moving upward in a straight line. At Bay we like to think of math as more of a tree, with branches that reach out in different directions. The core of our math sequence is the trunk of the tree: Integrated Math 1, 2, and 3. These courses cover the same topics a student encounters in the more traditional math sequence of algebra 1, geometry, and algebra 2, but in a curriculum that blends these different subjects together to build conceptual understanding and connections between geometric and algebraic ways of thinking. It is in these core classes that students learn the foundational skills of algebraic fluency and deductive reasoning, while they explore how they can use mathematics to model the world around them. 

Ninth graders most often start their math path at Bay in either Math 1 or Math 2. We look at placement tests, current 8th grade class, and teacher recommendations to decide where students will be successful and challenged. A student who begins in Math 1 can expect to learn about writing and solving equations with variables and building these ideas into an understanding of functions, with a particular emphasis on linear and exponential functions. They also learn about one-variable statistics and geometric congruence. 

Math 2 climbs further into the idea of functions, exploring the whole family of parent functions and doing a deep dive with quadratics and higher-degree polynomial functions. Math 2 builds off of the statistics knowledge from Math 1, exploring probability and taking the ideas of similarity and congruence introduced in Math 1 into writing geometric proofs and learning all about circles and coordinate geometry. In Math 3 students climb even higher into the tree, with trigonometric ratios and statistical inference. They circle back to exponential functions and are introduced to the logarithm, and they use functions as a tool to maximize and minimize geometric areas and volumes.

Once students have climbed the trunk of the tree, they can choose which branch to explore for their next course. Many students choose the Analysis of Functions branch, which prepares them for our honors calculus class. Others head out on the statistics and data science branch, which helps them make sense of numerical data and information in the world around them. Our electives courses, which vary from year to year, make up the other branches. Topology, probability, and discrete math are some of the electives we’ve offered in recent years, but our tree is always growing new branches as our teachers develop new courses.

Bree Pickford-Murray is the Math Department Chair at The Bay School.