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Primary Discussion Response is due by Wednesday (11:59:59pm Central), Peer Responses are due by Sunday (11:59:59pm Central).

Task Background: Many students are typically very nervous and have a lot of anxiety entering a math course. A lot of these anxieties have occurred based on experiences encountered with previous math courses or instruction techniques. In this assignment, you are going to discuss any issues that you have had in your past encounters with math, such as poor or rushed instruction, a complete lack of understanding of the topic, or no assistance from the instructor.

Primary Task Response: Within the Discussion Board area, write 3–4 paragraphs that respond to the following questions with your thoughts, ideas, and comments. This will be the foundation for future discussions by your classmates. Be substantive and clear, and use examples to reinforce your ideas.

Part I: Mathematical Experiences

Discuss the following with your colleagues:

• Have your past experiences with math been positive or negative?
  • If they were negative, what issues may have caused these negative experiences?
  • If they were positive, discuss some reasons why.
• How did your past experiences affect your attitudes toward math in general?
• If this includes resistance or anxiety, discuss how that resistance or anxiety has been reflected in you.
• Discuss what steps you will take in this course to overcome these anxieties and succeed in this course.

Part II: Daily Math

In your daily life, when you are calculating particular values, or quantities, you may make estimations. For example, you may estimate how many minutes it will take you to drive to work by totaling the number of minutes needed to shower, get dressed, prepare, eat breakfast, and so on. You may also estimate how many meals you can cook by roughly dividing up a package of hamburger meat into individual portions, and then adding up the total number of portions. You may even estimate how much gas you can buy with a given amount of cash; you estimate every day without even thinking about it!

Discuss each of the following based on your personal math experiences in your daily life:

• Give a numeric example of a time when you made a particular estimation by adding (or subtracting) or dividing (or multiplying) several particular values or quantities.
• Was your estimate high or low, and did the high/low difference really matter? Clearly explain to the class whether estimating mattered or not. 
• Think of a situation or case in your area of study (e.g., criminal justice, business, or medical). Present a detailed example of how estimating could cause devastating results that could have a negative effect on people, objects, or an organization. Therefore, in this case, it would not be appropriate to estimate, and working with exact calculations would be the only appropriate option.

Part III: Responses to Other Students: Respond to at least 2 of your fellow classmates with at least a 100-word reply about their Primary Task Response regarding items you found to be compelling and enlightening. To help you with your discussion, please consider the following questions:

• What did you learn from your classmate’s posting?
• What additional questions do you have after reading the posting?
• What clarification do you need regarding the posting?
• What differences or similarities do you see between your posting and other classmates’ postings?

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.