Learning Mathematics Through Culture Ravikant Agarwal, Andrea Williams, Cheryl Seals, Ph.D.

{agarwra, willia2, sealscd}@auburn.edu

IntroductionDrawing upon Auburn University faculty in the colleges of Education, Engineering and Liberal Arts, KEMET scholars participated in activities designed to develop their skills in reading comprehension, leadership, math, science, computing, decision-making and health & wellness.

This model is especially relevant for institutions whose missions involve the application of research to the direct benefit of the audiences external to the university setting.

Background• Rural Alabama, despite some improvement in recent years, remains a statistically dismal place for children to reside.

•The Annie Casey Foundation (2005) measured the rate of children living in poverty in rural Alabama at 24 percent, while 14 percent of children between the ages of 16 and 19 discontinue school before achieving a high school diploma or certificate.

•Both of these statistics exceed the national average.

Initiative•The KEMET academy was envisioned to provide an enrichment experience for a group of Alabama's youth from some of the states most disadvantaged areas. •The overall goal was to improve the academic performance and wellness, while increasing the percentage of participants who pursue post-secondary education.•The potential significance of this project was to create a valid and reliable model for outreach to under-resourced communities and their children •Identifying factors which promote higher levels of self-efficacy, achievement identity, self-respect and hope in African-American youth is of critical importance..

Impact•Assessed the effectiveness of the program and identified the components of the program that were most beneficial to our forty KEMET scholars

•Metrics evaluated the educational, sociological and psychological impact of KEMET academy programs on the lives of the targeted youth population

•Exposure to the university environment•Exposure to careers options•Enrichment of school activities that are not normally fun or interesting

•Many of the students said that they didn’t like Math and Science in their traditional classroom settings, but they did enjoy these topics in our interactive, energized hands-on format

•KEMET Scholars were exposed to computer applications like PowerPoint and use them to express some of their culture

Students in Computer Lab

Conclusions•The program enhanced KEMET Academy's future curriculum and helped in promoting the creation of a model, which could be replicated on a national level

•Local students were exposed to possible careers in science and mathematics

•KEMET parents and students from African American communities were introduced to Auburn University and other benefits that are not normally afforded to students in at risk communities

•KEMET scholars were encouraged to improve their academic performance in school and to begin career planning now

Future Work•Expand KEMET Academy to provide more than just summer support.

•Add more enrichment components so that we have ongoing contact with the students monthly.

• Connection with this middle school KEMET Scholars until they graduate high school and beyond.

CSDTs•One of our curriculum enhancements was CSDTs created by Ron Eglash at RPI.

•CSDTs teach mathematics through culture and we explored the Native American bead loom to explore four fold symmetry

•We also studied African American corn row braiding to explore transformational geometry.