By the end of a course based on this text, we expect students to have developed capabilities in three areas. The first area (mentioned above) is ”Mechanics and Techniques,” which includes knowledge of basic mathematical notation and symbol manipulation as well as basic technological (especially spreadsheet) skills for structuring problems for solutions. The second area is ”Application and Reasoning,” which covers the ability to contextualize the mathematical ideas, to extract quantitative information from a context, and to make logical inferences from quantitative analyses. The final area is ”Communication and Professionalism,” which covers the ability to write coherently about a problem and its proposed solution and to communicate this analysis in a professionally appropriate manner.
Specifically, a student earning an average grade in a course based on this text would have the capabilities in each of the three areas shown in the outline below.