Summary: In this project students are invited to a) explore how math is used in their families and communities; and b) use math skills to investigate community or social concerns and then take action to promote greater equity in the world around them.
Description: Possible project/classroom activities: a) "What Math Means to Me" (Product: A math collage to share with a partner class) b) "Everyday Math in My Community" (Product: Report describing an interview. Or alternatively, student-written math story problems based on the ways their families use math.) c) Statistics and Society (Product: Analysis of a graph or chart showing statistical or numeric data on a social, political, scientific, or environmental issue. Or a critical analysis of the way numbers and statistics are used in the media.) d) Promoting Equity at Our School Site (Product: Report on the actions students have taken in their communities or schools to promote greater equity, including a brief summary of the data and analysis on which those actions were based.) e) An Idea of Your Own to Connect Math to Your Day-to-Day Lives, to the Broader Society, and to Issues of Equity f) Global Data Collection Activities g) Virtual Gallery of Mathematics, Art, Culture, and Life (Product: A photograph, drawing, or other artistic expression of some aspect of your culture that you feel can play a role in promoting intercultural understanding, along with a text describing the item you have chosen and its connection to the world of mathematics.)
- Facilitator(s): Kristin_Brown
- Country: Puerto Rico
- Facilitator(s): Enid_Figueroa
- Country: Puerto Rico
- Facilitator(s): Mariela_Williams
- Country: Argentina
- Facilitator(s): Aileen_Velazquez
- Country: Puerto Rico
- Languages: English, Spanish
- Student Age Level: 5-11, 12-14, 15-18
- Contributions: Usual curricular divisions in schools link math with science in isolation from the social studies and language arts curriculum. When mathematics is instead taught "across the curriculum", multiple opportunities arise to use math to uncover stereotypes, understand history, and examine issues of inequality. In previous years students conducted school and community surveys and made recommendations to address such controversial issues as violence, racism, child labor and girls' attitudes toward math. Other classes examined how people of different genders and ethnic groups are represented in the books in their school and city libraries and shared their data with the librarians and those making purchasing decisions.
- Outcomes: Participants contribute a report of their local project activities to the "Connecting Math to Our Lives" web pages. Joint creation of a data base on an issue of global importance. Data is collected and analyzed by classes around the world. Joint creation of a mathematical art gallery to serve as a resource on culturally relevant teaching for math educators globally.
- Related Links:
http://www.orillas.org/math/