3 students attended; the three who were working at the speed of the teaching schedule last week.
Weeks 5 and 6 work in tandem: this week we learn some rules of linear functions and logarithms and next week we apply them to solving 'real' problems, which build on the work of previous weeks and take the students to the point where they can now do the coursework.
I decided in advance of the class to demonstrate this process by showing them a problem of the sort used in last years coursework and solving it quickly on the board. There is a trick whereby exponential functions, which are easy to demonstrate as nasty pieces of work, are reduced to linear functions, which we know how to deal with. My intention was to create a little healthy confusion and then tell them that by the end of next week they would be solving problems like this no trouble. On reflection I think I just created confusion and scared them a little. They seemed much more relieved back in the comfort zone of working through the material rather than listening to this madman at the front.
They left early.
