Yes, that's a difficult promise to live up to - "not what you were expecting". You were (are) probably expecting lots of equations and functions and problem solving, and to be honest this course will have those things in it. It's what you may not have been expecting, though, that will (I hope!) give this course some extra punch: Why were rational numbers (and beans) such a big deal to the ancient Greeks? What mathematical concepts was the author of Alice in Wonderland making fun of? What happens when the U.S. Congress has to deal with an exponential equation? (Hint: it's not pretty.) How much would the Canarsee Indians (the tribe which history books tell us "sold" Manhattan Island to the Dutch for $24 in 1620) have today if they'd invested that money? Why is Calculus hard? Now, that last one isn't really part of College Algebra, but we'll cover it just in case you find yourself in a Calculus class someday.

Throughout this class we're going to look at real problems (like 'how many miles would I have to drive my hybrid vehicle before I start saving money over a regular vehicle?' and 'why did Ferguson Missouri, which was 2/3 African American, have a majority white city council?') and some of the surprising answers we get. This is a class focused on real world problems and developing the approaches needed to answer them. Give it a chance, even if you're not here by choice: It just might be fun!