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Geometry: Seeing, Doing, Understanding My Father's World Printing
When Stephanie and Melissa finished Saxon Algebra 1 and started into Saxon Algebra 2 it didn't go well. Wisely, Linda decided to hold off on Algebra 2 and use Geometry by Harold Jacobs instead. After completing this course, they again started Saxon Algebra 2, follwed by Saxon Advanced Math, and did quite well. In fact, Stephanie scored a 30 on her ACT test in math, the highest math score that any of our children attained on the test. Why the turnaround? Was it just an extra year of maturity, or was it the way that Harold Jacobs presented the material that helped math to "gel" in their minds?
This latest edition of Jacobs Geometry preserves all the features that have made his text so popular with educators in the past. Like previous editions, this text stresses logic and deductive reasoning but does not take a "discovery" approach. This is an excellent geometry course with clear explanations of geometric concepts that include practice with proofs (informal and paragraph). The second chapter (six lessons) is appropriately devoted to logic in preparation for constructing proofs. Topics build incrementally and each practice set assumes knowledge gained in previous lessons in order to construct proofs. An appendix containing all presented theorems and postulates is most helpful. Also appreciated are the periodic algebra reviews, which keep students from forgetting these skills as they devote the year to geometry studies. This course is a thorough study of Euclidean geometry but concludes with a single chapter of four lessons that present non-Euclidean geometries. The "teacher's guide" is solely an answer key providing answers to all exercises. The test book contains chapter tests, a mid-term, a final, and test answers. Please note: instructional content of this version including answers is mostly identical to the content of the older, out-of-print version published by W. H. Freeman & Co.
