Math 201: Math, Education and Access to Power

Spring 2009

Graded 2.0 Unit Seminar, Official Meeting Times Mondays 5:00-6:25 Fowler 310.

Instructors:    

Texts: 1. radical equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project by Robert P. Moses and Charles E. Cobb, Jr.

2. How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom by the National Research Council

3. Supplementary text excerpts will be provided as needed.

CBL Component:  Our community partners for the course are the members of the Northeast Education Strategy Group. Generally, the Math Department has worked the most closely with the math teachers at Franklin High School.  Franklin is a large high school in LAUSD and is located nearby in Highland Park.  A large number of students at Franklin have to take and pass algebra 1; but many fail to do so.  We have worked with the teachers and students at Franklin in order to support their algebra 1 program.  This participation will translate to an hour of active participation at the high school either tutoring, observing and assisting in class, or working on a project with a particular teacher.  This work provides us with a context in which to explore issues associated with mathematics education, especially at the high school level, as well as the issues associated with being “mathematically literate” in society.

Class Format:  This is a seminar-based CBL course and the community experience, as described above, provides the framework for our discussions and research.  We will meet once a week as a group throughout the semester.  At these meetings we will discuss readings, have invited speakers, hear progress on your research and community experiences, etc.  (More about the research expected of you is described below.)

Course Work and Expectations: Each week there will be a reading assignment which will provide a jumping off point for our class discussion.  Because this course is so discussion based, attendance is very important.  You will each get an opportunity to format a list of discussion questions for one week’s readings.  On weeks when you are involved with Franklin High School, we will have you submit a reflection about the experience.  Finally, there will be a summative research project which will be done in pairs.  Each pair will formulate a research question and use both written resources and your community experience to address the research question.  There will be various deadlines associated with the research project (see below).  The research project will be presented in two ways.  There will be a written paper and there will be an oral presentation to which our community partners and members of the Occidental community will be invited.

Course Grading:           50%--Participation and reflections.

                                    50%--Research project.

Last Updated: Friday, January 16, 2009