Equitable Teaching of Mathematics and Science (STEM)

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Equitable teaching of mathematics (and of STEM more broadly) requires that we provide an equitable “opportunity to learn” STEM subjects for all students. This may be accomplished in a number of different ways.

• Provide “culturally relevant” instruction including an illustration of the roots of mathematics and science in diverse cultural contexts (e.g. “ethnomathematics” and “ethnoscience”). 
  
• Engage students in tasks that directly address issues of social justice (e.g. the growth of population in China, the mathematics of selecting a jury of one’s peers).
  
• Utilize a problem-based pedagogy in which students become the agents of their own learning.
  

1. We will introduce these ideas through a brief Keynote presentation giving examples of mathematics situated in nature, construction and decoration. Speculation will be encouraged about how observation of the natural and constructed world impact the development of mathematical and STEM ideas.
   
2. To begin the afternoon session, we will introduce a scientific controversy first ignited by biologist Paul Ehrlich in a book entitled The Population Bomb that provoked a strong response from Julian Simon and others.
   
3. This will set the stage for an investigation of several competing proposals for population policies set in mainland China. Participants will be assigned to one of four different policy proposals and, with their small group, determine the probable outcomes of their particular policy. Groups will then present the outcomes of their analysis and the policy implications of each will be debated.
   
4. Ultimately, a Ted talk by Hans Rosling, will introduce the display technology, Gapminder, and provide a potential resolution of the Population Bomb dispute. Or will it?
   
5. The afternoon session will conclude with participants choosing to either extend their inquiry through a) biology-centric explorations or b) mathematical extensions.
   

​Jon Manon

STEM Educator

College of Education

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Dr. Jon Manon is a STEM educator with appointments in the College of Education and the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Delaware.  He was the Director of the Mathematics & Science Education Resource Center for seven years until its merger into the Professional Development Center for Educators in 2014.  Jon also serves as the Treasurer of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics and as the president for the Delaware Foundation for Science & Mathematics Education. 

​John R. Jungck

Director

Interdisciplinary Science Learning Laboratories

John R. Jungck, Ph.D., is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Science Learning Laboratories, a Professor of Biological Sciences, and has joint appointments in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, the Bioinformatics/Computational Biology Program, and the Delaware Environmental Institute at the University of Delaware. He is the former Editor of Biology International, Bioscene: Journal of College Biology Teaching, the BioQUEST Library, and the American Biology Teacher; is an Editorial Board member of the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, Evolutionary Bioinformatics, and the American Journal of Undergraduate Research; and was the Editor of special issues of Mathematical Modelling of Natural Phenomena and CBE Life Science Education on Bio 2010. He has been a Vice President of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS): President of the IUBS Commission on Biology Education: a Board member of the National Institute for Mathematical Biology Synthesis (NIMBioS) Center, Emerging Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS), the National Numeracy Network, the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), and ITUE (the Institute for Transforming Undergraduate Education); Chairperson of the National Academy of Science’s IUBS National Committee; President of the Association of College and University Biology Educators, Chairperson of the Education Committee of the Society for Mathematical Biology; and President of Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi chapters. His major international commitments have been in Thailand, New Zealand, and Brazil. His model for quantitative reasoning was adopted by the College Board and he played a significant role in revising AP Biology to include evolution in all aspects of biology, expect more mathematical reasoning, require the use of calculators, spread sheets, and web based bioinformatics databases and tools, making labs more investigative, and honoring individual teachers to have more curricular autonomy. In 1986, he founded the BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium (http://bioquest.org). His honors include AAAS Fellow, AIBS Education Award, Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Minnesota, ASCB Bruce Alberts Award, EDUCOM Outstanding Educational Software Award, SICB John A. Moore Lectureship, the SMB Excellence in Mathematical Biology Education award is in his name, Honorary Life Memberships awarded from AIBS, SICB, and ACUBE, and a Fulbright Scholar in Thailand.  Besides being the Principal Investigator (PI) of this DDOE MSP grant: DISCovery: Discover Delaware Interdisciplinary STEM Citizen Science Project; he has been the PI of several major funded initiatives: BEDROCK (Bioinformatics Education Dissemination: Reaching Out, Connecting, and Knitting- together), C3: Cyberlearning at Community Colleges; the Biological ESTEEM (Excel Simulations and Tools for Exploratory, Experiential Mathematics) project; BIRDD (Beagle Investigation Returns with Darwinian Data); Microbes Count: Problem Posing, Problem Solving, and Peer Persuasion in Microbiology; the SELECTION Working Group of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent​); and of a subcontract for NUMB3R5 COUNT! (Numerical Undergraduate Mathematical Biology Education ...).​​