Math is taught by Mr. Regele. By far, this class is probably the most unconventional
out of all of them. Unlike other math classes where the teacher lectures at the front of the room and assigns problems from the textbook,
Mr. Regele gives out problems from a variety of sources, and he expects students to teach each other the material.
A lot of the material is similar to that of traditional algebra and geometry classes, except the problems are much harder
and requires deeper thinking to solve them. In a typical class, we start by discussing the homework with our groups,
and towards the end of class, Mr. Regele calls up students to the board to do out some problems.
Continuing to deviate from traditional math classes, we also had a 36-hour math competition in November. In this competition,
we worked in groups of three or four, and we had 36 hours to come up with a solution
to one of two problems. The problem that my group chose tasked us with creating a ski resort. We had to create a certain number of trails
of different difficulties based on the slope of the trail. To do this, we used Google Earth since the program allowed us to accurately
measure the slopes and lengths of each trail. Plus, it created an awesome image!
Also, unlike traditional math classes, we occasionally get Mathematica labs to do for homework. Mathematica is a program created by
Wolfram Alpha that can solve advanced calculations. In one lab,
we had to use conic functions and sinusoidal functions to create an image. I created Gompei the Goat.