General Information • Home Page • Our Company • Your Instructor • How to Use DVDs • Quick Sketches - Homeschool Students • Quick Sketches - College Students • Frequently Asked Q's • Customer Comments • Internet Warning Product Information • Prices, Ordering & Evaluations • Textbooks & Solutions Guides • Course Outlines, Reviews & Demos Existing Customers • Quick Start Guide • Read Me First • Technical Support • Replacement DVD/CD • Tests and Measurement • Exhibit Schedule • Education Links Chalk Dust Company PMB 256 16107 Kensington Dr Sugar Land, TX 77479-4401 800.588.7564 (USA) 281.265.2495 281.265.3197 fax sales@chalkdust.com	Geometry Reviews of Geometry "Our oldest graduated last May from homeschool. He used your Geometry, Algebra II, Precalc, and Calculus (1st half of the book). He has done very well with math. Last spring he took the AP Calculus AB exam and earned a 5 on it, the highest score. He just completed his first semester in engineering at Virginia Tech and received A's in both of his math courses, Calculus II and Vector Geometry. Chalkdust works! Thank you for your thorough, challenging program. Regards, Kim Estep" Geometry Review by Cathy Duffy 2005 7 DVDs or 11 VHS, (accredited) textbook, (complete) solutions guide, and student technical support This course reflects the positive side of what the standards movement in education has been trying to accomplish. The approach used in this course, which aligns with the math standards, combines conceptual learning and computational skills while teaching with both construction activity and traditional proofs. The text used is Houghton Mifflin's Geometry: An Integrated Approach by Larson, Boswell, and Stiff. I believe students whould use the text with this course even more than they might with other Chalk Dust courses because videos and text complement each other rather than repeating all the same (or very similar) material. While the text is fairly good on its own, explanations of some concepts are perfunctory. Professor Mosely expands the lessons wherever necessary. For example, the book's presentation on slope is very brief, so Mosely uses visual aids for a much lengthier, more complete teaching of the topic. On the other hand, construction activity is used throughout the book, and some inductive methods similar to those in Discovering Geometry show up in "Special Projects," "Chapter Explorations," and "Lesson Investigations" in the text. The text also features some optional computer and calculator activities. The projects, explorations, investigations, and computer and calculator activities are presented only in the text, not on the video. I highly recommend that students tackle as many of the projects, explorations, nd investigations as they are able. A computer drawing program is necessary for the computer activities and a graphing calculator for the calculator activities. However, neither is crucial to the course as a whole. The course covers typical content, including a brief introduction of trigonometry. Proofs are introduced in the second chapter, then used throughout the text, although the stress on logic is not at the level we encounter in Harold Jacobs' Geometry text. The text is heavily illustrated with lots of practical application: e.g., "Why does a 'baby gate' not have a bi-directionally rigid framework while a bridge using a similar parallelogram structure is rigid?" (p. 282). Some of this carries over to the videos, but the video presentations focus primarily on key concepts and skills. Algebra is applied within geometry lessons, and some "mixed reviews" in the text offer opportunity for problem-solving practice on algebra problems to help students retain skills. After lesson 13 in the text, there are seven "Excursions in Geometry," which are optional short lessons dealing with topics such as Platonic and Archimedean solids, topology and Mobius strips, and fractal geometry. Most of these are very interesting and not overly challenging, so consider using them if you have time. Overall, I think this course is great for homeschoolers. It includes some of the elements I like so much from Discovering Geometry (application, inductive thinking, construction activity, and interesting presentation), and it can be used by students working independently, while Discovering Geometry really needs a teacher. "I have two children--one who graduated from high school in 2003 and a sophmore in high school. I have used Chalk Dust's Pre-algebra, Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II. My oldest daughter is taking Calculus in college and is scoring at 98%. I attribute her success to her excellent foundation in math from Chalk Dust! Thank you." Karen Potter Geometry is a set of 13 videotapes, ranging in length from about one hour to over two hours, and covering all of a typical high-school geometry course. Teacher Dana Mosely attemts to capture the student's attention right from the start by dedicating the first video to topics of student interest--optical illusions, shapes, congruence and similarity--before proceeding to the more mundane--introduction to coordinate and non-coordinate geometry, measurement, and how to make geometric constructions with the help of a ruler and compass. As in the other Chalk Dust math series, the silver-haired and energetic Mr. Mosely varies his time between addressing the student directly with vigorous word pictures and examples, and writing on and pointing to the blackboard. Lots of hand motions. Especially impressive: Mr. Mosely can draw a perfectly straight line freehand! His geometric drawings are neat and easy to understand, with no messy erasures. The remaining dozen videotapes cover geometric reasoning (patterns, structures, some basic rules about angles and segments, etc.), lines in a plane, congruent triangles, circles, planar measurements (area and perimeter), space mesurements (volumes and surface areas), and loci (point equidistant from a given point). We only received the first two for review. These included not only classroom lectures and blackboard demonstrations, but some computer animations for illustrations. The optional reference text for this course is Geometry: an Integrated Approach by Larson, Boswell and Stiff published bt D.C. Heath in 1995. However, the course can be used with any standard high-school geometry text. Mary Pride "I have used your Algebra I and II as well as your Geometry tapes with great success. Your neighbor and delighted customer." Nancy Howard Course Outline Product Page To Order or Evaluate Previous Course | Home Page | Next Course Other courses: SAT Math Review | Basic Math | Trigonometry | Prealgebra College Algebra | Algebra I | Precalculus | Algebra 2 | Calculus I TOP OF THE PAGE Copyright © 1996-2009 Chalk Dust Company Website design and hosting by Mediawest Online.