This thoughtful new text develops students' skills of thinking and analysis, the most fundamental of which is mathematical modeling-the context for studying algebra. Algebra comes into play when students have to solve their model equations to answer a practical question. The techniques for solving equations, and the mathematical principles behind those techniques, are at the core of this text. Students in this course learn to identify the distinctive mathematical characteristics of the linear, exponential, power, and quadratic functions. Working through many examples, they learn how to see these characteristics in the descriptions of phenomena. As students develop the ability to generalize, they come to appreciate the power of mathematics. This text motivates students with numerous interesting, practical applications that they will encounter in their majors. In preparing the exercise sets, the author scoured the fields of business, psychology, biology, health, human physiology, and sociology for new applications to help students understand why they need to study math.