Elementary Mathematical Models:
An Accessible Development without Calculus, Second Edition

by Dan Kalman, Sacha Forgoston, and Albert Goetz

An Unusual Approach to General Education Mathematics. Elementary Mathematical Models offers instructors an alternative to standard college algebra, quantitative literacy, and liberal arts mathematics courses. Presuming only a background of exposure to high school algebra, the text introduces students to the methodology of mathematical modeling, which plays a role in nearly all real applications of mathematics. A course based on this text would have as its primary goal preparing students to be competent consumers of mathematical modeling in their future studies. Such a course would also provide students with an understanding of the modeling process and a facility with much of the standard, non-trigonometric, content of college algebra and precalculus.

For more details about the goals of instruction and what the course covers, see the Preface and Table of Contents.

Published by the American Mathematical Society. See this page for details about course adoptions, examination or desk copies, and related matters.

Great Writing. The lead author is known for mathematical exposition, with multiple MAA writing awards. Here are some samples from the book:

Two sections from chapter 2, including exercises
An example concerning extent of arctic sea ice
A brief summary, near the end of the text, of the modeling methodology applied throughout the course.

Innovative Instructional Goals and Content

Combines important aims of Quantitative Literacy, Liberal Arts Mathematics, and traditional Algebra and Precalculus courses
Contextually rich exposition of methods and sample applications
Coherent narrative story line through entire text
Strong conceptual emphasis on modeling and applications
Tightly integrated curricular vision, instructional goals, and pedagogical approach. See the preface.

A Wealth of Real World Examples and Exercises: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, World Copper Production, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) infections, Page Views of a Justin Bieber Video, Cumulative iPod Sales, Fuel Consumption Aboard a Communications Satellite, Laser Vision Correction, Repeated Medication Doses, Computer Network Connectivity, among others.

Carefully Crafted Homework Exercises

More than 1,000 exercises, with worked out solutions or answers for about half
Consistent inclusion of reading comprehension, algebraic skills, and contextualized modeling problems
Additional enrichment exercises in almost all sections to challenge even the strongest students

Strong Technology Support

Separate Technology Guide covering spreadsheets, calculators, web based apps
Collection of excel spreadsheets provides easy numerical and graphical exploration of difference equation models. By trial and error, students can fit difference equation models or explicit elementary functions to data sets.
Use of technology consistently encouraged throughout the text

Support for Instructors. Additional resources available through the AMS (and so inaccessible to students) include

Detailed Instructors Guide. This discusses such aspects of the course as Reading and Writing, Exercises Worksheets Exams, Clicker Questions, and Technology. It gives a more specific description of the student audience and the necessary algebraic background. Access to a sample syllabus and other course materials is also included. In addition, there are many tips and comments specific to individual sections of the text.
Clicker Questions. This is a collection of multiple choice and true/false items suitable for class discussion, or exams and quizzes. See this overview of Clicker Questions.
Extended exercise answers and solutions volume, with problem statements for all the exercises and answers or solutions for about three quarters of them.

A Beautiful Cover. But don't judge the book on that basis! The striking photograph of polar bears dramatizes the impact of shrinking sea ice. Superimposed is a graph from one model for sea ice extent from an example in the text.

Elementary Mathematical Models: An Accessible Development without Calculus, Second Edition

Elementary Mathematical Models:
An Accessible Development without Calculus, Second Edition