Math & Society
Have you always wondered about how powerful mathematics is?
Mathematics is often used to excerpt power and suppress people. In this course we will examine how mathematics can be used to understand social and political issues in general and white supremacy in the United States in particular.
Topics we might examine:
- Current events.
- Understanding the diversity of people/resources/etc. across the world using math (various mathematics topics).
- The history in systemic racism in the United States (various math topics).
- Redlining/Gerrymandering (ratio, proportion, geometry, efficiency gap.
- Ableism/Racism in classrooms (indigenous math)
- Majority and Power: The Role of Mathematics in Making Sense of Representation
- Supreme court
- in Congress, Impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (proportional reasoning, ratio, rate, percent)
- On Google, Hey Google who is a mathematician? A doctor? Etc.
- What’s the risk? For whom? (Comparing risks across different groups, Probability & Stats)
We will use visualizations to create community maps/Infographics for specific school boundaries that allows teachers and parents to "know" the neighborhood the school is located in better.
The goal is to provide resources for teachers to draw on to connect the in school academics to the students' lived experiences. We will explore all aspects of the statistical inquiry cycle (Formulate Questions, Collect Data, Analyze Data, Report/Visualize Data). The project will draw on the strengths/assets of the neighborhood.
A focus will be on collaborating with the community to create the visualization. The goals will be to:
1. Create Community Maps/Infographics,
2. Compare across Maps/Infographics,
3. Collect insight into communities.