This was a short week of mathematics, well school in general I guess. I have to admit I enjoyed the time off and the reality of returning to math class wasn't as rough as I had expected. We learned the Trapezoidal Rule on the day we returned. I found this to be quite easy. It was a lot of just understanding the correct terms to plug into the equation and then just typing it in the calculator from there. I was able to finish the whole assignment in class. I think it also helped that I didn't have Grace or Max there that day. I think I get more done when I am sitting alone and have my mind focused just on that. The rest of the week was much needed review. I was shaky on a lot of the stuff we covered this chapter. That is because I didn't spend the necessary time on each assignment like I should have. After completing the review, I understand everything pretty well and believe I will be able to do well on the test on Monday. I talked last week about not understanding the fundamental theorem of calculus very well. After this week of review, I am now able to complete those problems with the understanding that it relates derivatives to integrals. My participation was good in class this week. It might not have been the best in expressing my opinion for shirt designs to the class or answering and asking questions, but it was good in the sense that I was focused for the class periods and was able to get a lot of work done. That makes it a lot easier on me at home. It means less homework time, which means a happier, less stressed Mitch Ridley. Having to fill out the CCC's each night has required me to stay caught up and I like that a lot. I have been highly motivated when it comes to schoolwork lately and I really hope that it never ends.
This week we learned about the fundamental theorem of calculus, mean value theorem, definite integrals and anti-derivatives, and using Riemann sums.. I thought that the fundamental theorem of calculus and solving definite integrals using anti-derivatives were the hardest to grasp when we first began. I still feel a little shaky on them. I realized I wasn't as confident on them as I thought was after we took the AP style quiz. The wording messed with me I think and I wasn't able to determine what i needed to do at first to figure it out. I think i got most of them in the end. I was most worried about the short answer question... I participated well in class this week and I believe that by having the CCC;s count as a grade, I will have my homework done constantly on a timely manner. I think that was a good idea. I read a little bit about the fundamental theorem of calculus and found out Newton and Leibniz discovered this connection between integration and differentiation. This connection helped kick start the beginning of a scientific revolution for the next 200 years. It is still regarded as one of the most important computational discovery in math history… I found that to be pretty interesting. I guess it does pay off to read up on the material we are covering once in a while. I hope that this marking period goes as smoothly as the last one. I will continue to try my best to understand each concept so that there are no conceptual grey areas for me while filling out these CCC’s. I’m looking forward to deciding on a t-shirt design for our class. I’d say we have some pretty creative minds amongst our class. Have a nice weekend. I’ll see you Monday.
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