The needs and *interests* of the 2U student (1 Viewer)

[leehuan]

This discussion has appeared in my school from time to time, but we keep forgetting to ask our teachers about their say on the topic.

The gist is that, whilst the courses are designed to (at least sort of) cope with the intelligence of the cohort doing the level of maths, what could the applications of the 2U course be?

General 2 teaches some very fundamental concepts that anyone can apply to life. Easy example is simple data analysis; z-scores and standard deviation etc. 4U gives the potential engineer or whatever mathematically demanding field the capability to adapt to the challenging problems, as well as set up some of the things relearnt at university including complex numbers and integration.

Even 3U has some unique stuff, such as simple harmonic motion which explains the oscillatory nature of particles. Most universities have come to also allow 3U to open up a pathway into engineering, further maths and actuarial studies, to name examples.

So what does the 2U student achieve out of his/her choice of the subject? Apart from a subject that scales better than General 2.

The needs of calculus to pursue pathways that require a minor disciplinary level of mathematics such as commerce make for a good excuse as to why this course exists, at least, in my opinion. But where do students go from there? Learning a simplified process as to how financial maths does seem nice, but naturally the financial maths in 2U is still simplified, because the economy keeps changing. The fundamental principles of the 2U applications of calculus seems rather bland - basic motion and a brief treatment on natural growth. I found it interesting to learn about all of this back in 2U, but it seems now as though with just 2U where would that lead students off to?

I guess I'm just seeking enlightenment on the topic, because I know people will have differing views on this. But quite a fair few of my colleagues refer to 2U as a bit of a dead end. They only see it as a way to continue learning maths, except without being bored by simplicity really.

 

[Mr_Kap]

"But quite a fair few of my colleagues refer to 2U as a bit of a dead end. They only see it as a way to continue learning maths, except without being bored by simplicity really."

Pretty much. That's how i see it. And i'm good at maths so why not do it, if it's gonna help my ATAR.

 

[Trebla]

This discussion has appeared in my school from time to time, but we keep forgetting to ask our teachers about their say on the topic.

The gist is that, whilst the courses are designed to (at least sort of) cope with the intelligence of the cohort doing the level of maths, what could the applications of the 2U course be?

General 2 teaches some very fundamental concepts that anyone can apply to life. Easy example is simple data analysis; z-scores and standard deviation etc. 4U gives the potential engineer or whatever mathematically demanding field the capability to adapt to the challenging problems, as well as set up some of the things relearnt at university including complex numbers and integration.

Even 3U has some unique stuff, such as simple harmonic motion which explains the oscillatory nature of particles. Most universities have come to also allow 3U to open up a pathway into engineering, further maths and actuarial studies, to name examples.

So what does the 2U student achieve out of his/her choice of the subject? Apart from a subject that scales better than General 2.

The needs of calculus to pursue pathways that require a minor disciplinary level of mathematics such as commerce make for a good excuse as to why this course exists, at least, in my opinion. But where do students go from there? Learning a simplified process as to how financial maths does seem nice, but naturally the financial maths in 2U is still simplified, because the economy keeps changing. The fundamental principles of the 2U applications of calculus seems rather bland - basic motion and a brief treatment on natural growth. I found it interesting to learn about all of this back in 2U, but it seems now as though with just 2U where would that lead students off to?

I guess I'm just seeking enlightenment on the topic, because I know people will have differing views on this. But quite a fair few of my colleagues refer to 2U as a bit of a dead end. They only see it as a way to continue learning maths, except without being bored by simplicity really.

The point of the 2U course is to get students to learn the foundations of calculus without the need to go into extra levels of complexity as well as develop proper logical reasoning skills which you don't really cover in General. For many disciplines at university whether they be in the sciences or social sciences, having 2U is enough in terms of assumed knowledge. This is because they either the level of mathematics is quite light/moderate or most of the mathematics they cover is beyond the HSC course anyway (but 2U is sufficient for assumed knowledge).

 

[leehuan]

It's interesting because recently there's been a trend of students complaining about the logical reasoning 2U seeks to teach, as being 'too hard'. And then they drop to General. (For all I know they either actually need no maths at university, or they thought they didn't.)

To be honest, I do find it quite surprising how 2U is adequate for some degrees. But due to a treatment of calculus I can't say I'm astonished; I just would've expected the needs to be far more demanding than that. Although I wanted to get into actuarial studies, which is indeed mathematically intense, my alternative pathway to reroute (transfer) in is to use commerce, but whilst it's treated as a social science at the HSC level (both economics and business studies), I would've thought it would be a bit more intense than that.

One of my 2U classmates wants to do engineering. Thank goodness bridging courses exist but I don't think he's looking forward to that.


So really all in all 2U is just to allow for a light treatment of calculus because even though it's contrary to what I thought, it will suffice anyway?