Alt Math for High School

The No Prep Math Lessons in this unit will familiarize older high-school students with the personal finance topics they will encounter as young adults. The download is a zipped file containing a pdf and an Excel workbook. Each lesson is intended to take one to two 45-minute class periods for notes and another class period for the optional Excel portion. Students will learn the basic concepts and basic mathematics of Budgeting, Income Taxes, Simple and Compound Interest, Credit Scores and Credit

Chapter 1 Understanding Numbers Interpreting and working with large and small numbers, ratios, proportions, and percentages are critical skills for new graduates. In this No Prep Math unit, high school students will review basic mathematical skills and apply those skills to more challenging real-world problems in the context of economic and social issues. Real-world contexts include population, population density, National Debt and Deficit, GDP, inflation and the CPI, misleading uses of percenta

Chapter 3 Problem Solving with Units In this No Prep Math unit, high school students will review basic unit conversion and dimensional analysis and solve challenging real-world and mathematical problems using estimation and dimensional analysis techniques. High-school students at all levels will be challenged by problems in this unit. Most lessons are intended to take one 45-minute class period for notes, however you may decide to go faster or slower depending on the needs of your students. The

In this No Prep Lesson, older high-school students will become familiar with the basic concepts and vocabulary of filing and paying state and federal income taxes. They will interpret a W-2 Wage and Tax statement, estimate taxes owed using the 2022 tax law, for filing in 2023, and complete a 1040 using both a paper form and a free online tax preparation program. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, a real-world activity, and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This lesson is l

3.3 Capacity (Volume) and Weight Conversions In this No Prep Math lesson, high-school students use dimensional analysis techniques to solve problems involving U.S. and Metric measures of capacity and weight. The basic skills and metric equivalents are briefly reviewed, and more challenging problems are presented. The notes and assignment include basic skills problems, identifying equivalent U.S. and Metric amounts, calculating drug dosage, and a challenging modeling problem that could be used as

In this No Prep Math lesson, older high-school students will review simple and compound interest calculations, investigate the effects of increasing interest rates, calculate the time needed for an investment to grow to a given amount using logarithms or guess-and-check, and use the Rule of 72 to estimate the time it will take for an investment to double. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, an Excel assignment and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This No Prep Math lesson i

In this No Prep Math lesson, high school students will become familiar with the basic concepts of "good credit" and "bad credit" and learn how credit cards work. They will calculate minimum monthly payments and finance charges and use Excel or an online credit card calculator to investigate paying only the minimum monthly payments versus paying extra, late payments, and total interest paid. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, an Excel assignment and answer keys are included. -------------

Lesson 5– Applications of Percentages (high-school Quantitative Reasoning) In this multiple-day No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will calculate percentages; write percent equations to solve real-world problems; calculate sales tax, discount and commission; use the 1+ and 1- rules for calculating percentages; solve problems with multiple percentages; and estimate percentages. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This is lesson 5

Lesson 6– Describing Change with Percentages (high-school Quantitative Reasoning) In this challenging No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will calculate and use absolute and relative change, solve problems with percent increase and percent decrease, and make comparisons with percentages. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This is lesson 6 of my unit “Understanding Numbers” – the first unit of my high-school Quantitative Reasoning

Lesson 4– Applications of Proportions – The CPI (high-school Quantitative Reasoning) In this No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will write proportions to solve real-world and mathematical problems, make comparisons using proportions, explain how the Consumer Price Index is related to inflation, and use proportions to compare the prices of items in different years using the CPI. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This is lesson 4

Lesson 7– Common Misuses of Percentages (high-school Quantitative Reasoning) In this No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will learn the difference between percentages and percentage points, describe change using percentage points, and investigate common misuses of percentages. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, and answer keys are included. ---------------------- This is lesson 7 of my unit “Understanding Numbers” – the first unit of my high-school Quantitative Reasoning course.

Lesson 3 – Applications of Ratios – The Federal Budget (high-school Quantitative Reasoning) In this No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will review ratios, use ratios to describe a country’s population and economy, use ratios to make comparisons, interpret and apply ratios in the context of the Federal Budget, and calculate population density and other per capita values. Notes and examples, a homework assignment, optional in class activities, and answer keys are included. -----------------

In this No Prep Math lesson, older high school students will become familiar with the mathematics and basic concepts of saving for the future. They will use an online investment calculator and the Savings Plan Formula to investigate the “power of compound interest” and the importance of starting early when saving for the future, be introduced to the vocabulary of savings plans, learn how retirement savings plans and other long-term savings plans work, and become familiar with the benefits of tax

In this lesson, students will become familiar with the basic concepts of loans. They will use an online investment calculator and the Loan Payment Formulas to investigate the effects of different monthly payments, different interest rates, and loan length on the total cost of the loan. They will compute monthly payments using a formula and compare repayment scenarios using (optional) Excel or an online calculator. A brief overview of student financial aid is included. Notes and examples, a home

Lesson 2 – Big and Small Numbers In this No Prep Math lesson, high-school students will review the American names and metric prefixes for very large and very small numbers, convert between decimal and scientific notation, make comparisons of the size of numbers expressed in both decimal and scientific notation, and multiply and divide numbers written in scientific notation. This is a great review of scientific notation and number names for high-school students. Notes and examples, a homework ass