Math - Magical and Delicious

Darcy dubbed it “The Lucky Charms meeting.” It was the last in a series of get togethers we had to discuss the learning objectives of the Prep Math 10 course. Who knew it would take us back to the childhood breakfast table and those magically delicious marshmallow-enhanced bowls of cereal? But that it did as we debated the magical properties of angles and the delicious qualities of numbers.

The task before us was to decide whether the trig objectives should stay or go, as this was the last decision to make before finalizing the list of learning objectives. Over the course of all of our meetings we had a few key questions that guided our debates over what should be included in this prep course:

- What is the purpose of this course?
- Which learners take this course?
- Was the objective covered in a previous course?
- Yes - then does it need to be covered in this course again?
- No - then should it be introduced in this course?
- How does the objective relate to the next course?
- How does the objective relate to science courses?
- Is time better spent on this objective or other objectives?
- How do most learners perform on this objective?
- How does an objective relate to other objectives in the course?
- For learners in the next course who do not take Prep Math 10, when do they get introduced to the objective?

Starting with an old list of learning objectives, there were deletions, additions, and modifications in all sections. It was all up for debate and Penny did a great job moderating the conversations and ensuring changes didn’t leave a hole in anyone’s heart. With the learning objectives in place, the hunt for a good textbook is the next component of this curriculum project.

Many thanks to all of the instructors who shaped the learning objectives for this course: Penny Marcotte, Bev Kosior, Darcy Milano, Brenda Thomas, Michael Gaschnitz, Melanie Macdonald, Alix MacDonald, Carol Johnson, Diny Woyiwada, Travis Seaman, and Kiranjit Brar.