MP: Algebra for College Students w/ OLC Bind-In Card

by Julie Miller, Molly O'Neill

Miller/O'Neill's Algebra for College Students is an insightful text written by instructors who have first-hand experience with students of developmental mathematics. The authors introduce functions in Chapter 4 and do a very thorough treatment, devoting the entire chapter to the concept of functions. With such a solid foundation to build from, students will experience greater success when they encounter other function-related topics in later chapters, such as polynomial functions; quadratic functions; radical functions; and others. The authors have crafted the exercise sets with the idea of infusing review. In each set of practice exercises, instructors will find a set of exercises that help students to review concepts previously learned, and in this way, students will retain more of what they have learned. The exercise sets also contain translating expressions exercises which provide students with an opportunity to convert from English phrases to mathematical symbols and from mathematical symbols to English phrases, thus helping students to strengthen their command of mathematical language. Moreover, the applications found in the exercise sets are based on real-world data, which helps to promote students' interest in mathematics, and in turn, may serve to motivate and engage them. Other features include Midchapter Reviews and classroom activities (classroom activities are worksheets that can be downloaded from the OLC). The classroom activities are of special value, in that through their use, students may begin to take greater ownership over their own learning. The classroom activities were designed to be quick activities students could perform in class (either individually, or collaboratively in groups). In short, the Miller/O'Neill Algebra for College Students text offers enriching applications, a high level of readability, and excellent opportunities for students to become actively engaged in their exploration of mathematics.

Genres: Mathematics

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Julie Miller Miller/O'Neill/Hyde Math Books

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most algebra texts of this level, I feel this lacks a proper set theory focus, particularly in defining and formatting solution _sets_ Other than that, it seems fine and adequate for a first year in college algebra. No good examples for power rule of exponents.

I was drawn to this Mar. 14, 2020 article online: "So There’s a Locust Plague Too?". I tried to compare it to the text and realized how woefully inadequate it is on the practical application of exponential functions. Best I could find is Ex. 3 "Creating a Model for Population Growth" on page 470.

Complaints:

* No formal definition of classes of numbers, like integers and quotients as to formally define "fractions" and thus why the "improper fraction" is required over "mixed fractions"