This project addresses the difficulty of college students in handling the traditional courses in college algebra and preparatory algebra. These courses stress symbolic manipulation and contrived problems. Students find the courses to have little or no relevance to their background and goals. The project is designed to achieve several major objectives through the integration of technology, including (1) reducing the need for paper and pencil manipulation; and (2) enabling the student to consider real-world problems drawn from the sciences, the social sciences, and economics. The students are working in pairs on computer-based laboratory projects to analyze real data obtained locally or on the World Wide Web. They are using an algebra and graphing package to assist them in difficult computations. The project is predominately affecting non-science-majors and non-business-majors who want to take college algebra to fulfill a university requirement. Such students tend to be bright, but deficient in basic algebraic skills. *
