Community Walk

You will visit various locations in the community surrounding the school where you and your partner(s) will facilitate an activity for the family STEM night.

• Locations might include: parks, stores, businesses, cultural centers, community health centers, banks, professional offices, construction sites, police or fire stations, factories or processing plants, corner stores, restaurants, bakeries, etc.
• Each group should visit at least two locations.

LOOK for and DOCUMENT evidence of mathematics. This could include: people using mathematics, mathematical concepts or principles “in action”, mathematical relationships, quantities, figures, etc.

• Talk to individuals who work/play/shop in the setting about how they use mathematics, and when possible, take pictures and/or collect artifacts to document evidence of mathematical activity. These conversations with community members are a key part of this activity.
• The goal here is to recognize mathematical practices in children’s communities – this includes mathematical practices of adults in the setting (e.g., store owners, employees, parents who frequent the location) and mathematical practices of children in the setting (e.g., the children themselves, siblings, cousins, etc.). If possible, you can also take pictures and note how each picture evidences mathematics.
• Take note of things in the neighborhood or school that you hadn’t noticed before (if you've been to this community) or that surprised you.

You'll reflect on your community walk as you brainstorm and develop ideas for you math activity with your Family STEM Night partner(s). You may also find it helpful to share talk with others in the class about the range of experiences from different community visits. As you plan your lesson, may find it helpful to visit the community again.

As you start brainstorming ideas for the activity, look at some rich math tasks that you might adapt for your activity. It is often easier and a better use of your time to adapt rich tasks than to develop ones from scratch. I have provided resources and tips for finding rich tasks that might be appropriate. There is also a list of materials that will be available for you to think about making STEM connections.

As soon as your partner(s) has developed an idea for your math activity (and no later than 11:59pm on Sept 18), your group will submit your artifact about what you learned from the community walk and what you're thinking about doing for your math activity. This will allow me to give you feedback before you start planning your activity in detail.

Some sample presentations: Sample 1 & Sample 2

Only submit one presentation for your Family STEM Night group

Prepare a series of slides that showcase what you learned about community mathematics. If you did the community walk with others outside your Family STEM Night group, you can focus on sharing the experiences that you talked about as a group.

• Each slide can contain 1-2 related photos, and the mathematical ideas or principals that are evident in the photo.
• Additionally, another way you might share what you learned about community mathematics is by creating visual representations, such as graphs, tables, charts, or diagrams to communicate what you learned about a particular community location.

Describe the mathematics activity you are planning to develop. Your description should address the following questions:

• What mathematics question or problem will you pose to students?
• How does this problem/question integrate community mathematics (i.e., mathematics as it is authentically used in the community)?
• How does this problem/question integrate STEAM or literacy practices? (If it does.)
• How does this problem/question build on what you learned from your community walk? Why do you think this problem/question will be of interest to students and families in this community?
• What materials will you need to facilitate your activity?