New AP Curriculum Review: CPM Educational Program’s Calculus

cpm calc
[Source: CPM]
CPM Educational Program’s Calculus is a comprehensive single-variable calculus text that supports instruction in Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC courses. Resources are available in print and eBook formats. Learning List recently reviewed eBook materials for AP Calculus AB and BC.  Reviewers found the College Board’s big ideas, enduring understandings, and essential knowledge for AP Calculus AB and BC to be well addressed in course resources. Reviewers said that the course covers these concepts effectively in a rigorous, non-traditional format that requires students to investigate and connect new concepts and strategies.

CPM’s Calculus non-traditional approach to presenting content does not include some familiar features of a mathematics text, such as an instructional narrative and example problems with step-by-step solutions. Instead, instruction emphasizes “Study Teams” made up of two to four students who work together to discover strategies and solutions. Teams work together to answer questions, justify their reasoning, and identify multiple solution strategies. The teachers’ role is to encourage students’ teamwork, facilitate discussions, and provide support when teams encounter questions they are unable to answer. Learning List’s reviewers noted that CPM’s inquiry-based approach to instruction facilitates the integration of the College Board’s Mathematical Practices for AP Calculus (MPACs), explaining that students use the MPACs each day in their work in Study Teams.

Teacher resources include background and strategies (e.g., Math Chat) to support the implementation of Study Teams. Many lessons also include recorded podcasts, or “Mathcasts,” in which an expert teacher walks users through the lesson providing background information and suggesting teaching strategies. A “Teacher Support” appendix provides information about the course’s interactive math tools, links to each Mathcast video, printable resources for some lessons (e.g., polar graph paper), professional development information, SmartBoard files for each chapter, CPM Newsletters, and errata files.

About CPM*

cpm logo
[Source: CPM]
CPM began as a grant-funded mathematics project in 1989 to write textbooks to help students understand mathematics and support teachers who use these materials. CPM Educational Program is now a nonprofit educational consortium of middle and high school teachers and university professors that offers a complete mathematics program for grades 6 through 12 (Calculus) designed to engage all students in learning mathematics through problem solving, reasoning, and communication.

CPM’s Mission:

CPM’s mission is to empower mathematics students and teachers through exemplary curriculum, professional development, and leadership. We recognize and foster teacher expertise and leadership in mathematics education. We engage all students in learning mathematics through problem solving, reasoning, and communication.

CPM’s Vision:

CPM envisions a world where mathematics is viewed as intriguing and useful, and is appreciated by all; where powerful mathematical thinking is an essential, universal, and desirable trait; and where people are empowered by mathematical problem-solving and reasoning to solve the world’s problems.

*The content in this section is provided by or adapted from CPM.

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