Mathematics

NMH has one of the best high school math departments in the country. And do you know what they do best? Communicate. It starts with our math faculty. They’re always talking to one another—about math, about teaching, about the sports they’re coaching. They visit one another’s classes and trade ideas. And they encourage their students to work together in a similar way. It’s not unusual to see the students in a math class with their desks pushed together, their minds set on a common goal. In addition to being more real-world—few people in science or industry work in isolation—all this collaboration gives our department and our classes a sense of trust, vitality, and innovation.

 

Math courses range from meat-and-potatoes algebra and geometry to highly advanced explorations of complicated functions and applications. So whether you just want a basic understanding of equations, graphs, and theorems or you are hungry for statistical analysis, trigonometric functions, or scalar and vector fields, there are courses for you. And if you’re not sure how to choose the right courses, you needn’t worry. We’ll use tests, recommendations, and records of your previous achievements to advise and place you.

 

And at NMH, we make good use of technology in our math classes. In Geometry, you’ll use a program called Geometer’s Sketchpad. Available on the NMH computer network, it lets you build and investigate mathematical models and objects. So concepts that were hard to grasp suddenly become things you can visualize and interact with.

 

In all classes beyond Geometry, you’ll have to have your own TI-Nspire calculator. We’re one of the few schools in the country that requires this, but the use of the TI lets us ask much more interesting questions much earlier in your development. Once you acquire a certain skill, you don’t repeat the calculations, you turn it over to the machine. So, at NMH, you’re solving problems in Algebra II that were previously only solvable in Calculus. Math becomes a lot more engrossing. And really, that’s our goal: You go farther faster and have more fun.