Qrb Week 1 Summary

1. What three things did you learn this week? 2. Why are they important to you? 3. How do you plan to use them?

As a general statement, although I previously studied and learned the objectives for week 1 (mathematical expressions and equations, applying the rules for order of operations, and identifying dependent and independent variables) it has been so long since these concepts were learned I consider everything covered this week as "newly learned."

The first thing I learned this week is the importance of the order of operations when solving for an equation. I must admit, it took a bit of practice and "back and forth" for the order to sink in, but I feel confident that I have learned the primary order of operation covered in week 1: Parenthesis Exponents Multiplication/Division Addition/Subtraction (PEMDAS). The reason why this is important to me is because it is clearly evident that PEMDAS is the foundation for solving equations, as illustrated in the Math problems and quizzes. Without a very good understanding of the correct order of operations, I could struggle in subsequent course objectives. I plan to recall and use PEMDAS whenever solving an equation.

The second thing I learned this week is how to correctly convert an application problem (i.e. translating text) to an equation and solving for it. This was very important to me as it takes theory (textbook algebraic equations) which I seldom run across in everyday life and the workplace and applies it to "real life" situations. In addition, I learned that the order of the variables within the equation can be critical, so careful and correct translation is a must. The reading provided me with a good foundation for attacking this by reading the text a number of times and thinking through what the unknowns (variables) are, which will help me in future problems in "real world" applications.

The third thing I learned this week is how helpful estimating answers to application problems can...