From the authors: You are about to embark on an exciting mathematical journey. The goal of your trip is to reach the point at which you have gathered the skills, tools, confidence, and mathematical power to participate fully as a productive citizen in a changing world. Your life will always be full of important decision-making situations, and your ability to use mathematics and algebra can help you make informed decisions. You need skills that can evolve and adapt to new situations. You need to be able to interpret and make decisions based on numerical information, and to find ways to solve problems that arise in real life, not just in textbooks. On this journey you will make connections between algebra and the world around you.
You’re going to discover and learn much useful algebra along the way. Learning algebra is more than learning facts and theories and memorizing procedures. We hope you also discover the pleasure involved in mathematics and in learning how to do mathematics. Success in algebra is a gateway to many varied career opportunities.
With your teacher as a guide, you will learn algebra by doing mathematics. You will make sense of important algebraic concepts, learn essential algebraic skills, and discover how to use algebra. This requires a far bigger commitment than just waiting for the teacher to show you or studying worked-out examples.