Jill Halpern, Comprehensive Studies Program | 2022-2023
course description for Math 103 Pilot: STEM, Social Justice, & the Arts
In this JEDI-inspired pilot course, students will explore how math arises in contexts ranging from the physical and life sciences to social justice and the arts, while cultivating the broad-based intellectual and creative skills vital to university-level studies in STEM and beyond. To bring lessons to life, scholars will delve into engaging, hands-on projects at iconic locales such as the Museum of Natural History, Nicols Arboretum, and the UMMA; initiate a pay-it-forward service-learning project; and create a social justice simulation that we aspire to transform into an educational, interactive museum exhibit of its own.
The hope is that CSP Summer Bridge scholars will emerge from this unique experience with new content knowledge as well as a deeper understanding of the why behind rules and formulae; an ability to conceptualize, question, and think more critically; an appreciation of the beauty and utility of mathematics; a broader and more intersectional view of the world of STEM and the humanistic and socially-relevant possibilities therein; and a sense of themselves as gifted creators, scholars, and agents for positive change.
grant project description
In this multi-phase Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or “JEDI”-inspired project, CSP Summer Bridge scholars will co-create a redlining simulation in the spirit of an interactive museum exhibit. The simulation will invite viewer-participants to follow the fortunes of two families, one Black and one White(1), across a span of nearly a century, and so to learn about redlining and its legacy. Through this project, the scholar-creators will have the opportunity to hone their mathematical modeling skills as they create a compelling, socially-relevant narrative; to pool their diverse gifts and experiences in service of a meaningful all-class collaboration; and to share their work with the university community and beyond.
(1) In this proposal, I’ve adopted the race and ethnicity capitalization conventions advanced by the National Association of Black Journalists and the Diversity Style Guide.