Welcome to RWM101: Foundations of Real World Math

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

 

Course Description

Discover the fundamentals of math using scenarios you will come across every day that involve number properties, order of operations, fractions, fractions in other forms (decimals, ratios, proportions, and percents), and graphs.

 

Course Introduction

A hungry professor walks into your aunt's coffee shop, where you sometimes work as a cashier and manager. After some indecision, your math professor customer notices she can buy a 6-pack or an 11-pack of delicious, coffee-infused chocolate cannolis. She would like to buy 49 pastries. How many 6-packs and how many 11-packs should you put together for her? Is it even possible to fulfill her order? (Take out a few sheets of paper and explore; your customer will wait patiently.)

Our cannoli story has a fascinating answer that speaks to some deep mathematics first explored in the late 1800s and re-explored in the 1980s (thanks to some chicken nuggets from McDonalds). We use math in our daily activities, and it plays an important role in nearly every career you can imagine, from business to cooking to farming to medicine and beyond. It is no surprise that many call math a "universal" language: people across the globe use the same numbers, formulas, and equations to help them navigate the world.

In this course, we study essential math concepts that will enrich your understanding of the world and illuminate a larger, mathematically rich universe. The three courses in Saylor Academy's Real World Math series not only discuss basic algebra and geometry topics but also show you how to apply these concepts to everyday life.

The material focuses on how math relates to common "real world" situations, transactions, and phenomena, such as personal finance, business, and the sciences. This "real world" focus will help you grasp the importance of the mathematical concepts you encounter in these courses and understand why you need quantitative and algebraic skills to succeed in college and in your day-to-day life.

For example, fractions allow us to tell interesting and useful stories that involve measurement, ratios, and proportions. Decimals and percentages are "fractions in disguise". They help us make financial decisions and measure or compare various types of data. This course will help clarify the different ways we represent data visually, such as with a bar or line graph.

We also examine how to interpret data – no matter how it is presented. This skill will help you read a chart that outlines the current mortgage interest rate or make sense of the latest statistics for your fantasy football league. Let's not forget our coffee-infused chocolate cannolis. You will use addition, subtraction, and multiplication to answer her question. However, we will not help you deliver the bad news to your professor-customer.

A Note on Numbers – Before we begin, let's clarify what we mean by the word numbers. We are usually referring to a quantity, such as five, seven, or 10. But mathematicians have created four different categories or types of numbers.

Here is a summary of four types of numbers (with the fancy symbols mathematicians use to refer to them):

  • \mathbb{N} Natural numbers: all positive whole numbers: \mathbb{N}=\left \{ 1,2,3,4,5,... \right \}
  • \mathbb{Z} Integers: all positive and negative whole numbers (and zero, too!): \mathbb{Z}=\left \{..., -3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3,... \right \}
  • \mathbb{Q} Rational numbers: all positive and negative fractions (including integers):  \mathbb{Q}=\left \{a/b\mathrm{,\:where\:}a\:\mathrm{and\:}b\mathrm{\:are\:integers} \right \}
  • \mathbb{R} Real numbers: all possible positive and negative numbers: \mathbb{R}

Since it is difficult to present the entire set of real numbers as a collection of quantities, we usually visualize this set as a solid line of points that stretches on forever in both directions. This set includes all of the four number types in our list above, in addition to some more interesting expressions we won't discuss here. In Unit 1, we discuss the mathematical operations we can perform using all of these numbers: our number properties apply to all real numbers. However, most of our examples will focus on positive whole numbers (integers). In later units, we will explore negative whole numbers (integers) and fractions (also called rationals). You do not need to memorize these symbols, but know that integers can refer to positive and negative whole numbers. Fractions can also be positive or negative.

This course includes the following units:

  • Unit 1: Number Properties
  • Unit 2: Common Multiples and Common Factors
  • Unit 3: The Order of Operations
  • Unit 4: Fractions and Rational Numbers
  • Unit 5: Decimals
  • Unit 6: Ratios and Proportions
  • Unit 7: Percentages
  • Unit 8: Graphs and Charts

 

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • use properties of the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) to set up and solve real-world and mathematical problems;
  • manipulate expressions involving fractions to set up and solve real-world and mathematical problems;
  • manipulate expressions involving ratios to set up and solve real-world and mathematical problems; and
  • manipulate expressions involving decimals to set up and solve real-world and mathematical problems.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

 

Course Materials

This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole.

 

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

 

Tips for Success

RWM101: Foundations of Real World Math is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 32 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a comfortable pace that allows you to make regular progress. It's also a good idea to schedule your study time in advance and try to stick to that schedule as best as you can.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
  • As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.

 

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

  • To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to log in to your Saylor Academy account and enroll in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access the course materials without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

 

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.
Last modified: Tuesday, 14 January 2025, 12:14 PM