CSTEM 5106 Operations and Algebraic Thinking
Operations and Algebraic (OA) Thinking deals with the basic operations-the kinds of quantitative relationships they model and consequently the kinds of problems they can be used to solve as well as their mathematical properties and relationships. Most of the standards organized under the OA heading involve whole numbers, but the importance of how the standards progress is much more general because it describes concepts, properties, and representations that extend to other number systems, to measures, and to algebra. The generality of the concepts involved in OA means that students’ work in this area should be designed to help them extend arithmetic beyond whole numbers and understand and apply expressions and equations in later grades. Participants in this course will engage in representing Counting and Cardinality through to generalizing arithmetic to algebra. As OA develops across the grades, the level of sophistication expected in the computation methods will be calibrated to be coherent and to foster growth from one grade to another. This coherence will enable all participants to understand what is being taught and learned in their own grade as well as the grades that precede a participant’s grade and that which succeeds their grade.