Virginia Mathematics 8 (Apex)

Virginia Mathematics 8 is a two-semester course that delivers instruction, practice, and review designed to develop computational fluency, deepen conceptual understanding, and apply mathematical practices. In this course, students focus on understanding functions — what they are, how to represent them, and how to use them to model mathematical and real-world situations. In particular, students investigate linear functions by learning about slope and slope-intercept form. Students' understanding of linear functions is extended to statistics, where they make scatterplots and use linear functions to model data. They simplify and rewrite algebraic expressions and solve more complex equations and inequalities using both algebraic reasoning and concrete manipulatives. Additional topics include exponents, proportional reasoning, and irrational numbers. Students learn about transformations and extend that understanding to an investigation of congruence and similarity. Other geometric concepts include the Pythagorean theorem, angle relationships, and surface area and volume of cones and pyramids. Students investigate bias in sample data, display data in box plots, and identify the display that best represents a data set. Students apply their statistical skills as they collect, organize, and display their own data using technology.  

The two-semester course is arranged in themed units, each with three to five lessons. Each lesson consists of a variety of activities, including direct instruction, application of skills, performance tasks, and formative and summative assessments. Students engage with the subject matter in an interactive, feedback-rich environment as they progress through standards-aligned content and demonstrate their learning through computer- and teacher-scored assignments. By constantly honing the ability to apply their knowledge in abstract and real-world scenarios, students build the depth of knowledge and higher-order thinking skills required to demonstrate their mastery when put to the test.  

This course is built to state standards.

This updated course was originally created for Apex Courses and is now available in Courseware.