College Algebra Through Functions and Models

Scott Herriott researched the intended majors and future mathematical needs of more than 2,000 college algebra students and discovered the need for a text that really prepares the students for their future study in the managerial, social, and life/health sciences. He wrote a shorter text to better fit this audience. This thoughtful new text develops students' skills of thinking and analysis by teaching them to construct models from verbal descriptions and real data. Students solve their model equations to answer practical questions. This text motivates students with numerous interesting, practical applications that they will encounter in their majors. In preparing the exercise sets, the author scoured the fields of business, psychology, biology, health, human physiology, and sociology for new applications to help students understand why they need to study math.

Scott Herriott received his M.A. and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. While at Stanford, he was impressed with and influenced by Jim March's work on mathematical modeling. Herriott's approach reflects March's emphasis on the higher-level thinking skills that are needed for modeling, and he has incorporated them in the teaching of college algebra. Over the past few years Scott has given talks at many national and regional conferences on how to use applications to motivate students' interest in college algebra.