One of the basic subjects that children study throughout their entire educational career is mathematics. From the time they are learning to count until the time they graduate high school, mathematics is a core subject in the curriculum. Here are the levels of math and the order that they are in throughout the grade school, middle school and high school years.
Kindergarten Years
The first topic of mathematical study that is taught in schools is learning about the basic numbers. This includes the order of the numbers (counting) and applying very basic concepts to numbers. This also includes visual representations of numbers, such as helping children identify the number of objects in a given area.
First – Second Grade Years
During the first and second grade, the main topic taught to students is practical mathematics, which includes basic functions and operations, such as simple adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Most schools begin teaching students the ideas of practical mathematics in the first grade and continue through the second grade. Other topics during this level often include rounding numbers, measurements, simple fractions and basic mathematical word problems.
Third – Fifth Grade Years
Once the students have a firm foundation and understanding of the basic mathematical concepts, they can move to more complicated and involved areas of applying those principles. In some schools, students are first introduced to basic algebra between the 3rd and 5th grade years. During this level of grade school mathematics, students learn the relationship between factions and decimals as well as learning about percentages, rations, proportions and more complicated word problems.
Sixth – Eighth Grades
These are generally the middle school years for most districts and the math levels are increased to a higher degree of difficulty. Middle school is typically where algebra is introduced to students in a more involved manner than the basic algebra that some students learn in grade school. Students in this phase of their educational career also begin to learn about exponents, graphing data, statistics and probability and other more advanced topics.
Ninth – Twelfth Grades
These are typically the high school years and the mathematics level and intensity is increased during this stage. In high school, students can generally choose from different mathematical courses. For instance, if they have a firm understanding of geometry and algebra, they may want to take trigonometry or calculus.