Sally loves creative writing, and she is known in her community for getting national recognition for her writing pieces. Sally is also a devoted tennis player who is number one in the state. She also spends much of her time working at the animal shelter by her house, but when it comes math, Sally just can’t deal with it!

Calculus is way too hard, Algebra 3 is way too easy! What to do? Colleges want to see calculus on your transcript, but Algebra 3 will look like you took the easy route for senior year. No worries, because this year the ODA mathematics department is offering many different routes that students can take after taking precalculus.

Starting in fall 2014, students who have already taken the required math classes and are going into either their junior or senior year have many different options. Students can either take Calculus, Algebra 3, Statistics, College Algebra, AP Calculus AB, or AP Calculus BC. Calculus is a regular high school math class. Algebra 3 is an extension of Algebra 2 with more learning about probability and mortgages. Statistics is all about real life polls, events, and how to analyze statistics. College Algebra is a class to prepare students for the college math classes that they will be taking.

Statistics will be offered as a semester course. If students take statistics and perform well in the class, then they will have the opportunity to test into the second semester AP statistics. If students are not happy with their performance in Statistics first semester, then they will take Discrete math second semester.

Junior Christine Turner commented on the math changes saying “I think it gives a lot more variety of what math you can take … I like how they have it semester by semester and not one full year.”

ODA math teacher Debby Frye said, “Now we have options!” When asked whose idea it was to make these changes Frye said, “It was a lot of people [who] felt like we needed more paths for students to go.”

“I especially waned another place for seniors to be able to go rather than calculus.” Fyre continued saying, “Not every high school senior needs to take calculus.”

The ODA math department seems to be very excited for these new changes, and the students are intrigued by the options they have.

So be sure to have a conversation with your teachers, and sign up for a class that will challenge your brain, but will also not overload your schedule.