In this unit, I had expected to learn the ins and outs of healthcare, how the system works, and how to average costs. While we did learn all about that, we also learned much more. We went through three different scenarios with three different insurance payment structures. They were; everyone pays the same, mandatory coverage, and pre existing conditions, and went over the pros and cons of each one. Everyone pays the same is a structure in which, well, everyone pays the same for health insurance. The pros are that no one is kicked to the curb, however, the cons outweigh the cons, as people who can’t afford it won’t be given any exceptions. The next was mandatory coverage. This means that no matter what, you always have to have health insurance. This is easily the best of the options, as you would always have health insurance, but that doesn’t make it good. If you had a low risk, and didn’t need to pay much, you would still have to pay around the same as someone at high risk, and you couldn’t opt out. The final pre-existing conditions. The pros are that it is cheaper for people with a low risk, but those with a high risk are kicked to the curb. To solve problems, we did a lot with punnett squares, and also learned about expected value to find probabilities, which would tie into health insurance. However, we had to start simple, so we learned about punnett squares, and then started by finding probabilities of dice rolls. Overall, I learned a lot in this unit.
pATTERNS
Over the semester, I have started to improve, and I will continue to try. I have always had trouble with math, and this year was no exception. This entire unit revolved around multiple things, that in turn revolve around a simple subject; graphing. In this unit, we studied in-out tables, sigmas, consecutive sums, and the four families. The first thing we learned about was consecutive sums. A consecutive sum is an addition problem that is added by one for every number added to the sum, for example, 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 is an example of a simple consecutive sum. There is a formula for this called a sigma. Basically, it is a Z like shape with the starting number of the sum on the bottom and the ending number of the sum on the top, and the formula in the middle. The next thing we learned were the four graph families, the quadratic family, the cubic family, the square root family, and the absolute value family. Each one is a formula that will always graph one certain shape on a graph, and by adding or subtracting within or outside of the parenthesis or square roots, you can change the position. The cubic family is a waterfall shaped line, the square root family is a line with a non-linear slope that gradually slows down. The Quadratic family is a parabola, which is a U shaped line, and the final, absolute value family, is a V shaped line. I chose these subjects because I think they best represent what we did, and they were the fundamental building blocks for this unit. Overall, I think we learned a lot in this unit.