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The Pacific
Southwest Regional Technology in Education Consortium (PSR*TEC),
in conjunction with the networking projects, "De Orilla a Orilla"
and I*EARN-ORILLAS, invite you to participate in this on-line
international exchange. All ages and languages are welcome!
Introduction
Students will
join with others around the world in examining their own lives and
communities and broader issues relating to social justice and equality
from a mathematical perspective. In many countries, math traditionally
has been studied on its own or linked in the curriculum with science.
This project explores the possibilities of linking math to other
areas of the curriculum including social studies and language arts.
To register, please see the project time line and use the attached
form to send us your name and other contact information.
The flexible
activities which follow are organized in categories from which
teachers and students may choose. We encourage each class to participate
in one introductory activity and one activity linking math to
a social concern or issue of equality.
Introductory
Activities
1.
WHAT MATHEMATICS MEANS TO ME (Product: A collage.)
In this activity the students consider their attitudes and thoughts
about mathematics, the role that math plays in their lives, or
how they might use numeric data to describe themselves and their
families. They then cut out numbers, symbols, or other text or
graphics from newspapers, magazines or other publications. After
arranging and pasting these figures onto a piece of paper or cardboard
to create a collage, the students write about their work in a
paragraph entitled "What Mathematics Means to Me".
2.
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.) The students interview
a relative or other adult in their community about how they use
mathematics in their job, daily life, or studies. Encourage students
to ask questions about the specific ways in which math is used,
e.g. making calculations, handling money, creating budgets, taking
measurements, analyzing numeric data, etc. Students then write
a report or create math word problems for their peers based on
the information they gathered.
3.
AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN TO INTRODUCE YOURSELVES. Some classes
will want to move right into the activities linking math to equity
issues and social concerns. Feel free to send a brief message
telling how math is taught at your school, and/or a successful
or innovative math activity your class has done.
Activities
Linking Math
to Social Concerns and Issues of Equality
4.
STATISTICS AND SOCIETY (Product: Analysis of a graph
or chart showing statistical or numeric data.) In this activity
the students create or find a graph or chart depicting some kind
of numeric data or statistics on a theme of interest. This might
include themes related to social, political, scientific, or environmental
issues. After creating or finding the graph or chart the students
explain the information that it conveys and write about the implications
they think the data projects. (Note: it is important to have a written
description and analysis of the data so we can exchange the information
on the network.)
Another approach
to this activity, which can be used successfully with students
of any age, is for students or teachers to take informal opinion
polls in their classes. Students tally the responses and calculate
ratios or percentages. Then they describe in their own words,
being as explicit as possible, the findings and implications.
Finally they can create bar or pie graphs to represent and share
their findings. Encourage students to address questions of concern
to the school and community, analyze the responses by age, gender
or other characteristics of the respondents, and write about their
findings in the school newspaper.
5.
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.) Have students
analyze all the biographies in the school library on the basis
of gender, race, class or disability. Students then categorize
these and use percentages, fractions, and bar graphs to help them
describe the library's biography collection. After students have
gathered the information and analyzed the collection, they can
be encouraged to explore why the numbers are as they are. Assist
your class in understanding how publishing and power work.
Next, ask
students how they think and feel about the people and groups in
the books and also how how their research influences the way they
think about themselves. For example, when girls have gone through
books and found only a certain number of women doing "important
things", what does that say to them about themselves and what
does that say to boys about their own importance? We can expand
on that when we ask what does it mean when very few of the people,
men or women are Latino, Asian, or African American.
Finally,
students take action to address issues of representation at their
school site. Encourage students to find out who has the power
to make decisions about which books are selected for publication
and which books are selected for purchase by the school. Students
might write letters to educational publishers. They can also work
with the librarian, administration, and the PTA, to encourage
a more diverse collection of books and ensure that a broader range
of educators, students, and community members are included in
future decision-making. Variations include:
a. Students
use CD ROM encyclopedias in their classrooms or
libraries
to gather data on the length of the selections for many famous
people, based on their gender, and race.
b. A group
of students tours the school to collect and graph data on the
images that appear on the school and classroom walls. Whose pictures
and words are portrayed? Students analyze the data on the basis
of gender, race, class or disability, comparing percentages of
voices and images represented in each category with the population
in their class, at their school site, in their state, and in their
country.
c. Students
analyze entire newspaper stories. They can outline
in one
color all the stories about violence and crime, for example, and
use another color to outline stories about people working for
justice and peace. Similarly, one can highlight how many times
people of color are featured in stories of crime or drug-addiction,
and how many times they are portrayed positively.
d. Students
look at front-page photos for one month in three major dailies
to record what percentage of front-page photo subjects are women
or people of color and when they do appear how they are represented,
i.e. as athletes, criminals, victims, or representatives of government
or business.
In each case,
encourage students to use math skills of simple computation, averages,
percents, and graphing to create displays on bulletin boards.
Be sure to ask students to consider how these images affect the
way they feel and how the decisions are made about which images
or stories appear. Students can then take action against any inequities
they might discover by writing to the newspapers or publishers
and using their findings to teach younger children about the bias
they detected.
6.
AN IDEA OF YOUR OWN CONNECTING MATH TO YOUR DAY TO DAY LIVES AND
TO THE BROADER SOCIETY
Acknowledgments
This project
was inspired by an article entitled "Teaching Math Across The Curriculum"
by Bob Peterson which was published in the Fall, 1995 edition of
Rethinking Schools. The ideas in Section 4 (Detecting Bias at Your
School Site) were developed by Bob Peterson, an editor of Rethinking
Schools and Rethinking Our Classrooms, and by FAIR (Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting), a media watchdog group based in New York.
We would like to recognize Enid Figueroa for her coordination of
this project in Puerto Rican schools. We'd also like to thank the
many other educators from Puerto Rico, Canada, and the U.S. who've
helped shape this project.
We
invite you to join us!
Enid Figueroa,
Gerda de Klerk, Kristin Brown, Tanesha Glover, Victor Soria
On-line Project
Facilitators for "Connecting Math to
Our Lives"
A PSR*TEC/De
Orilla a Orilla/I*EARN-ORILLAS Networking Project
Note: Please
see Time Line and Registration Form.
To receive a
Spanish-language version of the announcement, time line, or registration
form, please write to orillas-math@igc.org |
