The central theme of the course is to help you learn to understand the world from patterns in data. "Beyond the formula" skills are emphasized. This course will require you to: think critically, be skeptical, think about spread and variation in data (rather than just about the center of data), move beyond a "memorize the answer" approach, and think about how to make inferences from data. 


This course teaches several basic concepts in mathematics, applying them to practical matters, particularly those involving business and/or ministry activity.  It also spends time teaching how to use a spreadsheet, with the Microsoft EXCEL spreadsheet as the example, to do a number of things that are useful in personal, business and ministry financial activity.  The financial and business aspects of this course are embedded in a Biblical framework of how a Christian should view material possessions and how the Scriptures define the ethics of business that a Christian should show.

This course explores the mathematics of algebra, a fundamental building block of all advanced mathematics. The course begins with a review of fundamentals and continues into the study of expressions, equations, inequalities, graphing, and applications to geometry.