|
|
|
Publishing News
By Nathan McCoy
October 2, 2007
During planning for the Quick Review math course at Texas State Technical
College Harlingen, Diana Gafford, developmental math department chair at TSTC
Harlingen, said she looked through several books for the class but couldn't
find anything she liked.
"I wanted a bare bones book and didn't want students to pay $150 for a
textbook," Gafford said.
So Gafford decided to write her own book, The Quick Math Review, with
assistance from Dr. Mike Hosseinpour, senior math instructor at TSTC
Harlingen. The book is a basic review workbook that covers the material
needed for the Quick Review class, an intensive one-week course covering
topics from Basic Mathematics, Introductory Algebra and Intermediate
Algebra.
Gafford said the book begins with fractions and continues into areas such as
factoring, basic algebra and graphing.
"I wrote this book to help these kids accelerate through the developmental
sequence," Gafford said. "It pares everything down to the very basic skills
that students need to know."
The developmental math department offers support to programs at TSTC
Harlingen to improve their students' math skills and prepare them for the
workplace or other college-level math courses.
The class is held the week before the regular semester. Students are taught
from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with an hour break for lunch.
Gafford said she has been very pleased with the inclusion of The Quick Math
Review in the Quick Review class.
"Out of all our students, 65 to 70 percent move up and pass the class to
save themselves a semester or two of Basic Math or Introductory Algebra,"
Gafford said.
© 2007 TSTC Publishing
|
 |
