The Regents Podcast is aimed to think about and equip how we practice that which is true, good, and beautiful in a 21st century context. The podcast gives Regents School of Austin a format to share with our community and beyond the amazing stories happening on our campus, and help equip parents shepherding their children’s hearts.
I was recently a guest on the podcast, along with four students from my AP Statistics class. We were invited to discuss their service-learning project in which they parter with a local homeless ministry for survey research and evaluating organizational effectiveness. You can listen to the podcast here.
Podcast summary:
Dr. Josh Wilkerson and a group of four AP Statistics Students (Cade Morris, Caroline Hooten, Lucy Gifford, and Chris Kuhlman) talk about their class survey/data analysis project with Mobile Loaves and Fishes and how they were impacted by the residents at the Community First! Village.
Note: this conversation was recorded last Spring and the Junior students who were involved are now Seniors!
This week I am leading a workshop at the 2018 AP Annual Conference on “Statistics and Service-Learning” in Houston, TX. The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into AP Statistics curriculum, specifically with the goal of impacting students on an affective level.In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
ABSTRACT:
This session will equip participants to design, implement, and evaluate AP Statistics service-learning projects in which students partner with nonprofit organizations in their local community. These projects synthesize the major concepts of experimental design, data analysis, and statistical inference in the real-world context of community service. Through these projects students integrate their conceptual understanding of statistics with the practical functioning of their local community, ultimately gaining a deeper appreciation for the role of statistics in the organization and evaluation of service societies.
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
For many of the service-learning projects that my students have completed I am indebted to the willing partnership of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Here is some introductory information on this great ministry:
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT:
The following are the foundational questions that you as an instructor should consider and reflect upon prior to implementing a service-learning project. This list is not meant to be chronological though some aspects will naturally precede others. Start by considering the course learning objectives and your method of assessing those objectives and then go from there.
1.What are the major learning objectives/big ideas/enduring understandings for your course?
The purpose of the AP course in statistics is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes:
Exploring Data: Describing patterns and departures from patterns
Sampling and Experimentation: Planning and conducting a study
Anticipating Patterns: Exploring random phenomena using probability and simulation
Statistical Inference: Estimating population parameters and testing hypotheses
2. What are real-world situations where students can apply the concepts studied in your course?
Identifying a non-profit service agency which requires survey research (program evaluation, client needs assessment, etc.)
Students develop a survey instrument, conduct survey, compile and code data, analyze data, present results
3. List some potential community partners along with some basic descriptors that may impact how your students work with each partner (ex: What is the size of the organization? What issues does the organization address? Is the organization non-profit, governmental, religiously affiliated? Etc.) In lieu of a partner organization you can also consider a general community need for students to address. List some general descriptors of the project involved in addressing this community need.
4. Look for potential matches between organizations on your list from question 3 and your responses to questions 1 and 2. If there are multiple potential matches then consider the pros/cons of each and list them. Be sure to recognize how your matching affects the organization of the project (large scale as a class v. small scale as groups), which in turn may affect your response to question 5 below.
5. Once you have begun narrowing potential community partners that offer opportunities for students to interact with course content, consider how will you assess students? What will be the final product? What expectations will you have for students throughout the project and how will you communicate that to the students?
6. How will students be organized to meet the objectives that they will be assessed on? Will students work as individuals, teams, as a whole class?
7. How will students be equipped to complete the project successfully? What will they have gained from the course up to the point of assigning the project that will aid them? What additional tools/skills/knowledge will students need as the project proceeds?
8. What will be the timeframe for the project? How will students be held accountable to the timeframe? At what points will students receive feedback on their progress?
9. Why should students care about the project? What will you do as an instructor to get student buy-in on the project?
10. How will students reflect throughout the project? What opportunities will you provide for students to pause and consider the work they have done?
HANDOUTS:
From my AP Statistics Project 2018:
(Clicking the image above will take you to the students’ final presentation)
This week I am giving a presentation at the 2017 Society for Classical Learning (SCL) conference on “Cultivating Mathematical Affections through Service-Learning.” The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into mathematics curriculum, specifically with the goal of impacting students on an affective level. Since this is my dissertation topic, I’ve presented on it numerous times before – and now that my dissertation is done (!), I hope to finally be able to devote more time to building out resources on this site. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
ABSTRACT:
This session will examine the benefits of service-learning projects in mathematics. Service-learning projects engage students in integrating their conceptual understanding of math with the practical functioning of their local community. Ultimately students gain deeper content knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the role math plays in society.
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
For many of the service-learning projects that my students have completed I am indebted to the willing partnership of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Here is some introductory information on this great ministry:
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT:
The following are the foundational questions that you as an instructor should consider and reflect upon prior to implementing a service-learning project. This list is not meant to be chronological though some aspects will naturally precede others. Start by considering the course learning objectives and your method of assessing those objectives and then go from there.
1.What are the major learning objectives/big ideas/enduring understandings for your course?
2. What are real-world situations where students can apply the concepts studied in your course?
3. List some potential community partners along with some basic descriptors that may impact how your students work with each partner (ex: What is the size of the organization? What issues does the organization address? Is the organization non-profit, governmental, religiously affiliated? Etc.) In lieu of a partner organization you can also consider a general community need for students to address. List some general descriptors of the project involved in addressing this community need.
4. Look for potential matches between organizations on your list from question 3 and your responses to questions 1 and 2. If there are multiple potential matches then consider the pros/cons of each and list them. Be sure to recognize how your matching affects the organization of the project (large scale as a class v. small scale as groups), which in turn may affect your response to question 5 below.
5. Once you have begun narrowing potential community partners that offer opportunities for students to interact with course content, consider how will you assess students? What will be the final product? What expectations will you have for students throughout the project and how will you communicate that to the students?
6. How will students be organized to meet the objectives that they will be assessed on? Will students work as individuals, teams, as a whole class?
7. How will students be equipped to complete the project successfully? What will they have gained from the course up to the point of assigning the project that will aid them? What additional tools/skills/knowledge will students need as the project proceeds?
8. What will be the timeframe for the project? How will students be held accountable to the timeframe? At what points will students receive feedback on their progress?
9. Why should students care about the project? What will you do as an instructor to get student buy-in on the project?
10. How will students reflect throughout the project? What opportunities will you provide for students to pause and consider the work they have done?
(From Arches, a magazine published by Regents School of Austin)
AP Statistics student Vanessa Aguirre shares how their class harnessed the power of surveying, statistics and service to help the Mobile Fishes and Bread ministry in their efforts to combat homelessness in Austin.
On a rainy Tuesday morning, the thirty-six AP Statistics students walked through the Community First! Village of Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a local Austin non-profit focusing on the needs and betterment of the homeless community. The community village this organization founded is a beautiful, solitary sanctuary, with mini-homes right out of a housekeeping magazine and gardens dotting the landscape. Weaving through the clusters of houses and RVs, the high school students knocked on doors and waited with baited breaths, holding copies of a survey they helped design for the residents of the village.
“I was pretty nervous,” senior Lydia Strickland said.
Over the course of the morning, the students went from door to door, talking to the residents and sharing their stories, working to fill the survey as their school project that would help Mobile Loaves and Fishes (also known as MLF) in its aim to fight homelessness. The math students worked in tandem with MLF to, ultimately, answer the question: Does a lack of community cause homelessness? The high school students used ideas and concepts learned throughout the year to edit, carry out, and analyze a survey given to the residents living in the community village the non-profit has made.
This question is largely based on Bruce K. Alexander’s “Rat Park” study, where Alexander and other scientists set up a study administering drugs to rats not in isolated cages, but in communities with a positive environment, and found that the drug intake of rats went down dramatically. This shows that environment and community play a significant role in drug use—and leads others to wonder if more than just drug use can be improved. The AP statistics and MLF worked together to explore this train of thought, and to reaffirm MLF’s community-based program.
Homelessness is, after all, a very real problem. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there were 564,708 homeless people in the United States in January of 2015, 15% of which were considered chronically homeless. More pragmatically, each homeless person costs taxpayers around $14,480 a year. When you do the math, that amounts to homelessness costing more than eight billion annually.
Not only does homelessness affect those directly involved, but it impacts society as well. Efforts to curb homelessness will have a positive impact on everyone. As a large and established homeless outreach ministry based in Austin, Mobile Loaves and Fishes attempts to do just that—curb, and ideally eventually end, homelessness and the factors behind it. In partnering with the AP Statistics students of Regents School of Austin, MLF hoped to gain more data on the effectiveness of their Community First! Village and the philosophy that poor environment and lack of community are the root problems of homelessness.
“We believe what we’re seeing anecdotally on the property is being verified through the statistical analysis, so we love this [the AP Statistics project,]” Alan Graham, Mobile Loaves and Fishes co-founder and director, said. “It confirms our model at Community First, that the only model that’s going to move the needle in a significant way is a kingdom-based model that’s all about community. So we need that data.”
Not only has the AP Stats project helped as a service, but it’s also helped as learning tool for the students, giving them a deeper appreciation of the concepts they learned in class.
“I liked the real-world application,” junior Emily Raeder said. “That was great.”
This service-learning model is meant to lead students into developing higher-order critical thinking, in a real-world environment, where service to the community (such as alleviating homelessness) is presented as crucial to the course objectives and larger applications of education. Dr. Wilkerson, the Regents AP Statistics and Calculus teacher, sees service-learning as a valuable tool in math education.
“I think it helps because you get to use statistics in a real-life situation that’s meaningful in an immediate context,” he said. “Students realize that what you learn in math class aren’t things you would just have to do down the road, in the distant foggy future. Students learn the connection between helping people and using statistics, and they learn it on a deeper level.”
The project showed that math and making a difference in the world can go hand in hand. In order to help Mobile Loaves and Fishes and its residents, the AP Statistics students at Regents had to learn exploratory data analysis, data collection, probability, and statistical inference. On top of all this, students also got to practice their speaking skills. Students presented the results to representatives from MLF, the culmination of the class’s hard work.
The high schoolers also got a better appreciation of how even the little things can affect the world around them.
“I talked to this one man who talked about what a difference people who give out bags with goodies at stoplights made, that it made his day,” one junior said. “He said those things made a big difference. But we don’t put much thought into it.”
These math students may just be proof that math really can accomplish anything.
Regents School of Austin, where I teach, will be hosting a summer institute for teachers and I’ll be leading a workshop on implementing service-learning in math courses. The target audience is math teachers at any level K-16 or pre-service math teachers.
Here are the details:
This workshop will assist you in developing successful service-learning projects in mathematics. Service-learning projects engage students in integrating their conceptual understanding of mathematics with the practical functioning of their local community. Ultimately students gain deeper content knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the role math plays in society.
Several examples of service-learning projects will be presented in detail from geometry and statistics, as well implementable ideas for other math courses. You will have the opportunity to brainstorm and work in conjunction with other educators to analyze the key components of a successful project, engage in discussion assessing the feasibility and logistics of implementing service projects in your own curriculum, critique project evaluation rubrics, and begin the design of your own service-learning project.
You will leave this workshop equipped to:
Determine the keys to a rewarding service-learning experience (after hearing personal testimony from students and community partners)
Modify and implement sample materials from past Regents projects (including project descriptions, calendars, and grading rubrics)
Connect the enduring understandings of your course with a community need
Evaluate student learning outcomes in keeping with your curriculum
Engage students with meaningful applications of math in the personal context of their local community
A word on cost (as I know it is high, and also out of my control). If someone is interested the workshop (setting price aside), please contact me and I will try to make it work. I would really love for anyone interested to attend and not have cost be a hurdle.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and please share with colleagues that you think might be interested.
This week I am leading a workshop at the 2017 NCTM Annual Conference in on “Cultivating Mathematical Affections through Service-Learning.” The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into mathematics curriculum, specifically with the goal of impacting students on an affective level. Since this is my dissertation topic, I’ve presented on it numerous times before – and now that my dissertation is done (!), I hope to finally be bale to devote more time to building out resources on this site. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
ABSTRACT:
This session will examine the benefits of service-learning projects in mathematics. Service-learning projects engage students in integrating their conceptual understanding of math with the practical functioning of their local community. Ultimately students gain deeper content knowledge and a deeper appreciation for the role math plays in society.
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
For many of the service-learning projects that my students have completed I am indebted to the willing partnership of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Here is some introductory information on this great ministry:
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT:
The following are the foundational questions that you as an instructor should consider and reflect upon prior to implementing a service-learning project. This list is not meant to be chronological though some aspects will naturally precede others. Start by considering the course learning objectives and your method of assessing those objectives and then go from there.
1.What are the major learning objectives/big ideas/enduring understandings for your course?
2. What are real-world situations where students can apply the concepts studied in your course?
3. List some potential community partners along with some basic descriptors that may impact how your students work with each partner (ex: What is the size of the organization? What issues does the organization address? Is the organization non-profit, governmental, religiously affiliated? Etc.) In lieu of a partner organization you can also consider a general community need for students to address. List some general descriptors of the project involved in addressing this community need.
4. Look for potential matches between organizations on your list from question 3 and your responses to questions 1 and 2. If there are multiple potential matches then consider the pros/cons of each and list them. Be sure to recognize how your matching affects the organization of the project (large scale as a class v. small scale as groups), which in turn may affect your response to question 5 below.
5. Once you have begun narrowing potential community partners that offer opportunities for students to interact with course content, consider how will you assess students? What will be the final product? What expectations will you have for students throughout the project and how will you communicate that to the students?
6. How will students be organized to meet the objectives that they will be assessed on? Will students work as individuals, teams, as a whole class?
7. How will students be equipped to complete the project successfully? What will they have gained from the course up to the point of assigning the project that will aid them? What additional tools/skills/knowledge will students need as the project proceeds?
8. What will be the timeframe for the project? How will students be held accountable to the timeframe? At what points will students receive feedback on their progress?
9. Why should students care about the project? What will you do as an instructor to get student buy-in on the project?
10. How will students reflect throughout the project? What opportunities will you provide for students to pause and consider the work they have done?
This week I am leading a workshop at the 2016 AP Annual Conference on “Statistics, Significance, and Service” in Anaheim, CA. The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into AP Statistics curriculum, specifically with the goal of impacting students on an affective level. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
AP Conference Presentation: Serving the Community through Statistics: workshop with numerous resources for integrating service-learning into AP Statistics, presented at the 2015 AP Annual Conference. I’ll be giving a follow-up workshop at the 2016 AP Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.
CAMT 2012 Presentation: Presentation I gave at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching based on the first statistics service-learning project mentioned above.
Geometry and the Homeless: the first service-learning project I did with my geometry students. An updated version from this last school year should find its way onto the site by mid summer.
ABSTRACT:
This session will equip participants to design, implement, and evaluate service-learning based statistics projects in which students partner with non-profit organizations in their local community. These projects synthesize the major concepts of experimental design, data analysis, and statistical inference in the real-world context of community service, ultimately cultivating in students a deeper appreciation for the discipline of statistics. In this session participants will evaluate successful examples of such projects, critically analyze the benefits of the innovative assessment methods involved, and engage in discussion assessing the feasibility and logistics of implementing service projects in their own curriculum.
(This session will expand on the session “Serving the Community through Statistics” from the 2015 AP Annual Conference by including results of my completed dissertation research on cultivating a productive disposition in statistics students through service learning)
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT:
The following are the foundational questions that you as an instructor should consider and reflect upon prior to implementing a service-learning project. This list is not meant to be chronological though some aspects will naturally precede others. Start by considering the course learning objectives and your method of assessing those objectives and then go from there.
1.What are the major learning objectives/big ideas/enduring understandings for your course?
The purpose of the AP course in statistics is to introduce students to the major concepts and tools for collecting, analyzing and drawing conclusions from data. Students are exposed to four broad conceptual themes:
Exploring Data: Describing patterns and departures from patterns
Sampling and Experimentation: Planning and conducting a study
Anticipating Patterns: Exploring random phenomena using probability and simulation
Statistical Inference: Estimating population parameters and testing hypotheses
2. What are real-world situations where students can apply the concepts studied in your course?
Identifying a non-profit service agency which requires survey research (program evaluation, client needs assessment, etc.)
Students develop a survey instrument, conduct survey, compile and code data, analyze data, present results
3. List some potential community partners along with some basic descriptors that may impact how your students work with each partner (ex: What is the size of the organization? What issues does the organization address? Is the organization non-profit, governmental, religiously affiliated? Etc.) In lieu of a partner organization you can also consider a general community need for students to address. List some general descriptors of the project involved in addressing this community need.
4. Look for potential matches between organizations on your list from question 3 and your responses to questions 1 and 2. If there are multiple potential matches then consider the pros/cons of each and list them. Be sure to recognize how your matching affects the organization of the project (large scale as a class v. small scale as groups), which in turn may affect your response to question 5 below.
5. Once you have begun narrowing potential community partners that offer opportunities for students to interact with course content, consider how will you assess students? What will be the final product? What expectations will you have for students throughout the project and how will you communicate that to the students?
6. How will students be organized to meet the objectives that they will be assessed on? Will students work as individuals, teams, as a whole class?
7. How will students be equipped to complete the project successfully? What will they have gained from the course up to the point of assigning the project that will aid them? What additional tools/skills/knowledge will students need as the project proceeds?
8. What will be the timeframe for the project? How will students be held accountable to the timeframe? At what points will students receive feedback on their progress?
9. Why should students care about the project? What will you do as an instructor to get student buy-in on the project?
10. How will students reflect throughout the project? What opportunities will you provide for students to pause and consider the work they have done?
HANDOUTS:
From my 2015-16 AP Statistics Project (Organized as an entire class project over the full year):
Reed, G. (2005). “Perspectives on statistics projects in a service-learning framework.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Root, R., Thorme, T., & Gray, C. (2005). “Making meaning, applying statistics.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Sungur, E.A., Anderson, J.E., & Winchester, B.S. (2005). “Integration of service-learning into statistics education.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Hydorn, D.L. (2005). “Community service projects in a first statistics course.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Massey, M. (2005). “Service-learning projects in data interpretation.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Chapter 6: Getting Down to Work
Webster, J. & Vinsonhaler, C. (2005). “Getting down to work – a ‘how-to’ guide for designing and teaching a service-learning course.” In C.R. Hadlock (Ed.), Mathematics in service to the community: Concepts and models for service-learning in the mathematical sciences. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.
Duke, J.I. (1999). “Service-Learning: taking mathematics into the real world.” The Mathematics Teacher, 92 (9), pp. 794-796, 799.
Leong, J. (2006). High school students’ attitudes and beliefs regarding statistics in a service-learning-based statistics course. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Georgia State University.
For many of the service-learning projects that my students have completed I am indebted to the willing partnership of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Here is some introductory information on this great ministry:
This week I am leading a workshop at the 2016 Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching in San Antonio, TX on “Cultivating Mathematical Affections through Service-Learning.” The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into mathematics curriculum, specifically with the goal of impacting students on an affective level. Since this is my dissertation topic, I’ve written about it numerous times before here on GodandMath.com. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
AP Conference Presentation: Serving the Community through Statistics: workshop with numerous resources for integrating service-learning into AP Statistics, presented at the 2015 AP Annual Conference. I’ll be giving a follow-up workshop at the 2016 AP Annual Conference in Anaheim, CA.
CAMT 2012 Presentation: Presentation I gave at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching based on the first statistics service-learning project mentioned above.
Geometry and the Homeless: the first service-learning project I did with my geometry students. An updated version from this last school year should find its way onto the site by mid summer.
ABSTRACT:
This session will equip participants to design, implement, and evaluate service-learning projects in which students partner with non-profit organizations. Through these projects, students integrate their conceptual understanding of math with the practical functioning of their local community, ultimately gaining deeper knowledge of content and a deeper appreciation for the role math plays in society. Examples from geometry and statistics will be provided.
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
For many of the service-learning projects that my students have completed I am indebted to the willing partnership of Mobile Loaves and Fishes. Here is some introductory information on this great ministry:
10 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE IMPLEMENTING A SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT:
The following are the foundational questions that you as an instructor should consider and reflect upon prior to implementing a service-learning project. This list is not meant to be chronological though some aspects will naturally precede others. Start by considering the course learning objectives and your method of assessing those objectives and then go from there.
1.What are the major learning objectives/big ideas/enduring understandings for your course?
2. What are real-world situations where students can apply the concepts studied in your course?
3. List some potential community partners along with some basic descriptors that may impact how your students work with each partner (ex: What is the size of the organization? What issues does the organization address? Is the organization non-profit, governmental, religiously affiliated? Etc.) In lieu of a partner organization you can also consider a general community need for students to address. List some general descriptors of the project involved in addressing this community need.
4. Look for potential matches between organizations on your list from question 3 and your responses to questions 1 and 2. If there are multiple potential matches then consider the pros/cons of each and list them. Be sure to recognize how your matching affects the organization of the project (large scale as a class v. small scale as groups), which in turn may affect your response to question 5 below.
5. Once you have begun narrowing potential community partners that offer opportunities for students to interact with course content, consider how will you assess students? What will be the final product? What expectations will you have for students throughout the project and how will you communicate that to the students?
6. How will students be organized to meet the objectives that they will be assessed on? Will students work as individuals, teams, as a whole class?
7. How will students be equipped to complete the project successfully? What will they have gained from the course up to the point of assigning the project that will aid them? What additional tools/skills/knowledge will students need as the project proceeds?
8. What will be the timeframe for the project? How will students be held accountable to the timeframe? At what points will students receive feedback on their progress?
9. Why should students care about the project? What will you do as an instructor to get student buy-in on the project?
10. How will students reflect throughout the project? What opportunities will you provide for students to pause and consider the work they have done?
This week I am leading a workshop at the 2015 AP Conference in Austin, TX on “Serving the Community through Statistics: A Capstone Project.” The talk is on integrating service-learning projects into AP Statistics. Being that this is kinda my dissertation topic, I’ve written about it numerous times before here on GodandMath.com. In addition to the resources that you will find below, feel free to check out some of the prior posts on service learning:
CAMT 2012 Presentation: Presentation I gave at the Conference for the Advancement of Mathematics Teaching based on the first statistics service-learning project mentioned above.
Geometry and the Homeless: the first service-learning project I did with my geometry students. An updated version from this last school year should find its way onto the site by mid summer.
ABSTRACT:
This session will equip participants to design, implement, and evaluate service-learning based statistics projects in which students partner with non-profit organizations in their local community. These projects synthesize the major concepts of experimental design, data analysis, and statistical inference in the real-world context of community service. Through these projects students integrate their conceptual understanding of statistics with the practical functioning of their local community, ultimately gaining a deeper appreciation for the role statistics plays in the organization and evaluation of service societies. In this session participants will explore several successful examples of such projects, identify the key components of a successful project, engage in discussion assessing the feasibility and logistics of implementing service projects in their own curriculum, and critique project evaluation rubrics.
PRESENTATION:
You can click the image below to find the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation.
SUMMARY PACKET:
I prepared a packet of information for those attending my session. You can access the packet here. The packet contains the following:
Presentation Outline
Classroom Handouts
Resources
ADDITIONAL HANDOUTS:
I could not include every classroom handout that I use in the packet that I prepared. Here are some of those additional handouts:
Here is a video on MLF’s heart for the Community First project:
I have worked with geometry students on designing RV covers, gazebos, bike racks, and spiral herb gardens. Below is a picture of last year’s winning gazebo design and the current building progress:
I am beginning my dissertation this summer. It will focus on the benefits of service-learning projects in mathematics and it will specifically examine the partnership between my students and MLF. So needless to say, you can expect a lot of future posts on this topic. Ultimately I believe that service-learning is an incredible way to impact a student’s appreciation of mathematics. To use terminology that I’ve written on before: service-learning is an excellent tool for cultivating mathematical affections.
While you can expect much more on this topic here, I wanted to share a recent video that I came across of other institutions partnering with MLF through the process of service-learning. The institution in the video below just so happens to be my alma mater of Texas A&M (Whoop!): Aggies design, build ‘tiny homes’ for homeless as part of curriculum – The Eagle: Local News.
Construction science senior Laura Malek said working on a project that was going to help a “great cause” was a huge motivator during the process. The project also mimicked a real-life work environment, she said, by bringing together students who wouldn’t normally work together.
“Today was so much fun,” she said. “It was amazing to actually see our work in place and actually get some outside feedback. It felt a little surreal to finally see it there today finished and painted. It meant a lot. People seemed to really enjoy the space and that felt really great after our hard work.”
An interesting side note is that the student quoted in the story is the sister of one of the students that was a part of the first ever service-learning project I initiated (see: Serving through Statistics).
Like I said, there will be a lot more to come on this.
Always feel free to contact me if you have any questions about implementing service-learning into your math class.
Service-Learning in Mathematics 