Spring 2023 Schedule

Prereading: The impact of classroom diversity philosophies on the STEM performance of undergraduate students of color. 

In summary: students of Color showed greatest STEM performance following an explicitly multicultural classroom policy statement. 

We will discuss the results of the paper and will use the questions below as our starting-points: 

• How do you communicate course policies to your students at the start of the semester, either explicitly or implicitly? 

• What do you do or say on the first day to welcome your students?

• What impact does your approach have on your classroom environment and your students' learning?

• How do we employ a multicultural approach in mathematics classrooms?

We are reading the series of books by Drs Pamela Harris and Aris Winger on advocating for students of color in mathematics. 

• “Asked and Answered: Dialogues On Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Practices and Policies: Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Read and Rectify: Advocacy Stories from Students of Color in Mathematics”

Speaker: Jenna Tonn

Title: Thinking Historically About Gender in STEM

Abstract: It’s well known that we still have a lot to do to attain full gender and racial equality in STEM fields. But what can we learn about the intertwined histories of gender and higher education in the modern sciences that can help us better understand this pressing problem? This talk uses unpublished archival materials written by men and women in nineteenth-century STEM fields to better understand the origins of the gender problem in STEM fields and how we might re-imagine new pathways today and in the future.

Video

Speaker: Erika Ward

Title: Giving students a chance to be wrong

Abstract: Active learning encourages students to explore and create mathematics, but some students enter our classrooms reluctant to do so. A belief that having right answers is how one participates in math class is an aspect of that reluctance. Discussing, modeling, and practicing being wrong as an essential part of the process of doing interesting mathematics (at whatever level) is at least part of the antidote. How do we provide opportunities where it feels safe to be wrong? What do we do when we’re wrong? There are ways to incorporate this into classrooms and course structures that give students permission to experiment.

We are reading the series of books by Drs Pamela Harris and Aris Winger on advocating for students of color in mathematics. 

• “Asked and Answered: Dialogues On Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Practices and Policies: Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Read and Rectify: Advocacy Stories from Students of Color in Mathematics”

We are reading the series of books by Drs Pamela Harris and Aris Winger on advocating for students of color in mathematics. 

• “Asked and Answered: Dialogues On Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Practices and Policies: Advocating For Students of Color in Mathematics”

• “Read and Rectify: Advocacy Stories from Students of Color in Mathematics”