Central Catholic High School - Lance Yearbook (Lafayette, IN)

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Math! Who says it has to be boring? Miss McCormack stressed the practical side of math to her general math students. They learned to apply the basics of math to their everyday lives by doing comparative shopping and making bank deposits. One day the students were averaging the ages of the whole class. Naturally, everyone wanted to know Miss McCor- mack ' s age. Some of the boys earned a few brownie points when they told her that she didn ' t look a day over 30. In geometry, Mr. Jared used the overhead projector to go over homework problems and exp;ain new material. Once in a while he ' d bring in the computer to demonstrate the solu- tions to some of the proofs on the homework assignments. This helped to break up the dally routine. Mr. Jared also assigned logic problems. This allowed students to think things out the way they did when they solved proofs.q; Ax- isms, properties, and solving equations were the primary concerns of Mrs. Fletcher ' s Algebra classes. During 4th hour, when problem solving began to get confusing, conversations often turned to the prospect of lunch. Beth Burks was con- stantly keeping tabs on the menu of the day. Mrs. Fletcher used the computer to do the computer pro- grams in each chapter of the book. Students also had the opportunity to obtain extra credit by solving The Problem of the Week . Math — it can be frustrating at times, but for the under- classmen, at least it wasn ' t Boring! . 76 general math

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Advanced Math — a course for college bound stu- dents, was taught by Mr. Jared. The course dealt with analytic geometry and trigonometry. Since the material covered in class was needed for their future math classes, the students found it extremely important to learn as much as they could during the course of the year. Mr. Jared didn ' t waste a minute of class time. The students were kept busy working on a new section of material every one or two days. By the end of the first semester they were familiar with many new terms — polar coordinates, radians, cosecants, asymptotes, and hyperboles were just a few. For the juniors. Advanced Algebra involved a great deal of work. The students were taught by Mrs. Haw- thorne. A typical class period was spent reviewing the homework and going over new material. Mrs. Hawthorne used the overhead projector to illustrate new concepts, and usually the students were able to complete a new chapter every week. Most of the time, the student took the rules for solving algebraic equations for granted. One day Ken Benkeser decided to make up his own laws for a particular algebra problem. Mrs. Hawthorne explained to him that this wasn ' t possible. She said that a person can ' t make up his own rules for getting to heaven, so he can ' t make up his own rules for algebra. For the upperclassmen, math courses were important to their future. Mr. Jared and Mrs. Hawthorne made sure that the students understood the materials that they needed for college. • m n T3g«i M - 5 ' ) IB . ' T PSi 1 7 ■ JB 1 ■ Tony Weber doesn ' t seem to need his algebra book while studying from his notes. r .1- 4 . r senior math 75

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From Proofs To Problems! Proofs of angles, one of many things taught in ge- ometry is made easier by Mr. Jared ' s explanations. math 77