Goodrich, Michigan High School Students Take Math Seriously

Almost all of the 2007 class at Goodrich High School have taken the maximum of math courses. Class of 2008 are expected to have numbers similar.

Many of the students have registered for dual-enrollment at the University of Michigan in Flint. For those, sitting in the classroom is a breeze.

"I didn't do very much in the first couple weeks of the course because I already had learned everything that was being taught," says senior Mark Lakowski.

Goodrich was among the top schools in the M.E.A.P. program for math scores. The school district is also ranked the highest in Genesee County in the Michigan Merit Examination.

"The popular kids at our school aren't the cheerleaders or football players. The popular crowd are kids who get good grades and are involved in school activities," Mark said.

What makes Goodrich so big on fuctions of math? Integrated Math teaches many areas of math including geometry and algebra that students will use in every day situations. These courses are all taught within the same class and involve many problem-solving skills needed in today's work industry. In these classes, it involves writing out many answers explaining how they got to those conclusions.

The district also teaches many of these skills in groups. The groups work together to rationalize on an answer versus sitting all alone stressing over an answer they may not be able to come up with on their own.

"I enjoy my math teacher too. He's not boring. It's much more fun to work in a group and to learn with others than doing traditional math problems and struggling to find answers," Mark continues.

Many of the students work on problems that involve building roads, particularly in curves. The students are instructed to point out what fixed areas of the curve are essential in a polynomial function. Applying themselves to every day issues in math help center the focus and students aren't afraid to challenge themselves to a higher course.

However, despite its success within the school, educational leaders are debating how effective the integrated math courses really are.

"Integrated math courses water down the concept of higher formulas and don't prepare kids for college courses," says Mrs. Tracy, a math teacher of the Davison school district in which reverted back to traditional math courses after testing the integrated math courses.

"When you combine math with real world situations, it helps me learn," Mark exclaims about his Intregrated Math 5 course.

How does Goodrich prepare students with the same effectiveness as traditional math problems? Simple. They add in problems that are found in traditional classes.

Girls at the school score higher in these courses despite the dislike to some.

"I'd rather have traditional problems. Integrated math teaches a lot of the theory and sometimes is more than we need to know at our grade level," senior Kristin Bailey says.

"I do however enjoy small group efforts because you may not get the answer right. Each person can help build up the answers and can talk it through," she continues.

Math courses aid in almost every career field. Knowing how to graph problems help in the construction fields. Math is also linked to music. Students who learn music are more prone to understand concepts of math as it involves time and interval laws.