Month: May 2019

Math for Social Justice: Racial Equality

The file attached to this post is a work-in-progress. In this project,  I tackle racial justice using mathematical tools in two different ways. First, develop a numerical index of racial equality that can be used to compare states using Microsoft Excel and JMP scripting.  Second, I develop a unit for a college course for non-math majors whereby the students use Google Sheets to explore the connection between race and income by using US Census data for Tucson, Arizona. 

Draw a math teacher task

I drew a classroom where students are engaged in the task : “Do white people have more income than People of Color?”  There’s a cart of laptops in the corner, a smartboard, a teacher’s desk with a computer and my Microsoft Surface next to it.  Students are in groups of 4, and each group has a laptop.  Me, the teacher, is larger than them and bearded, and each group has a task card.  I am going around and asking questions like “How would you know if there’s a relationship?” and “Show me how your group set up your spreadsheet?”.

Are you learning or grade oriented?

Based on Ohmer Milton’s book Making Sense of College Grades, I’ve put up his Learning Oriented-Grade Oriented quiz on my website. I could not find cut scores for the test, so the cut scores I used are arbitrary, and I have found it still a useful thing to use with my students when teaching study skills. You can take the test here, and feel free to send your students there:
http://jamessheldon.com/test/are-you-learning-oriented-or-grade-oriented/

AMS Grad Student Blog

Dear JamesSheldon.Com Blog Readers,

I have a secondary blog that I update quarterly. I blog with a mathematics educators’ perspective for the American Mathematical Society’s graduate student blog. You can find my blog posts on that blog here:
https://blogs.ams.org/mathgradblog/author/jsheldon/

If anyone is interested in becoming a blogger for AMS, I’d be happy to connect you. I’m also open to guest posts on the jamessheldon.com blog.

James “Mountain Shadow” Sheldon