BHNmath

NEWSLETTER | ISSUE 11 | SEPTEMBER 22, 2022

Written by Adam Gesjorskyj

HERE WE GO!

Welcome back, teachers, students and parents! I hope your 2022/2023 school year is off to a great start. After a much needed summer break, I’m pleased to report that it’s going to be an exciting and productive year for BHNmath. As always, I’ll be keeping busy building a variety of new resources to support teaching and learning across the secondary mathematics curriculum. Although we successfully navigated our way through the first year of the Mathematics, Grade 9 (MTH1W) course, there’s still much work to be done in refining the program and optimizing the de-streamed learning experience. Through reflection, analysis and collaboration, I plan to identify and address the areas most in need of attention. Stay tuned! I’m thrilled to have already begun working on new Advanced Functions (MHF4U) materials and I’m very much looking forward to beefing up the senior mathematics sections of the BHNmath website over the coming months. Finally, my other plans for this year include better familiarizing myself with ways in which I can support our Grade 7 and Grade 8 teachers and learners, and investigating ways in which we can further facilitate our elementary students’ transition to high school. I wish you all the best for a fantastic school year and I look forward to hearing from you!

Growing in Mathematics Book for Grade 9

We have a book! As requested by teachers who regularly utilized the MTH1W Check Your Understanding (CYU) documents last year, the Growing in Mathematics book contains all of the CYU practice problems in a durable and reusable textbook format. Each of the original problem sets was given a visual makeover (thanks to my good friend and colleague, Rachel Vukelich) and supplemented with information about the topic’s big ideas and learning goals (thanks again to Rachel Vukelich). A shout-out to the team at Spence Print Solutions for a bang-up job assembling the final product and having it ready for our students before the start of the school year. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out! For more information on how this resource is intended to be used, please check out its foreword.

Each newly formatted CYU document is now posted with its corresponding topic in the MTH1W section of the site. Furthermore, the complete collection is available in the following formats (also available in the Extras section of the MTH1W home page):

PRACTICE TESTS FOR MHF4U

Eight practice tests are now available for the Advanced Functions (MHF4U) course. Full solutions are also included. For teachers, Microsoft Word versions can be downloaded and edited as desired. Click the student, parent or teacher link below to check out an example!

UPDATE FOR GRADES 7 AND 8

The Grades 7 and 8 page has recently received a significant update! Specifically, numerous resources have been added and some changes have been made to the resource labeling (all existing links should still work). I’ll continue adding resources to this page as I build them. 

COMING SOON FOR MTH1W

Many thanks to Rachel Vukelich and Dan Yakymyshyn, who have worked tirelessly to create problem strings for nearly all of the topics in the Mathematics, Grade 9 (MTH1W) course! Many teachers have expressed interest in this type of resource to support thinking classroom practices in their Grade 9 classes. I’ll begin uploading these documents in the near future and will be sure to send a notification to all mailing list subscribers once completed.

Congratulations, Dan!

St. John’s College teacher Dan Yakymyshyn was selected as the 2021/2022 recipient of the BHN OECTA Innovation in Pedagogy Award! Dan has played a critical role in developing and implementing our Grade 9 de-streamed mathematics program, our Root 2 Success summer math camp, and countless other BHN math initiatives. Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition, Dan!

Recently Added Resources

Here are the five resources most recently created for BHNmath (excluding Question and Answer Centre resources):

Course: Advanced Functions (MHF4U1)
Topic: Compound Angle Formulas
Type: Interactive Lesson Tool
Target: Teachers
Location: Trigonometric Equations and Identities
Notes: A dynamic tool to assist teachers in demonstrating the derivation of the cosine addition formula through the use of a geometric diagram. This resource was used to create the video mentioned below.

Course: Advanced Functions (MHF4U1)
Topic: Compound Angle Formulas
Type: Video
Target: Students
Location: Trigonometric Equations and Identities
Notes: A video walking through the derivation of the cosine addition formula using a geometric diagram.

Course: Advanced Functions (MHF4U1)
Topic: Compound Angle Formulas (and other identities)
Type: Reference Document
Target: Students
Location: Trigonometric Equations and Identities
Notes: A document showing algebraic derivations of compound angle formulas. It also includes derivations of double angle formulas and alternate forms of the Pythagorean identity.

Course: Advanced Functions (MHF4U1)
Topic: Review of Exponential and Logarithmic Functions
Type: Practice Test
Target: Students
Location: Exponential and Logarithmic Functions
Notes: A practice test for the Exponential and Logarithmic Functions unit. Full solutions and editable Microsoft Word versions are also available here.

Course: Advanced Functions (MHF4U1)
Topic: Review of Trigonometric Functions
Type: Practice Test
Target: Students
Location: Trigonometric Functions
Notes: A practice test for the Trigonometric Functions unit. Full solutions and editable Microsoft Word versions are also available here.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR BHNmath?

  • Uploading problem strings for MTH1W
  • Providing support for Grade 7 and Grade 8 mathematics programming
  • Creating new resources for secondary mathematics courses
  • Building resources and providing support on request

Best wishes for a wonderful year!
– Adam