I worked on this for a while. I guess I am hoping for it to become a regular part of the Math 20-2 or 30-2 classes I teach! But I know it hasn't been tested and that I haven't exactly been teaching very long at all!
Grade Stream & Strand: Math 30-2
Topic: Mathematics Research Project
America’s native prisoners of war: Aaron Huey on Ted.com (15:28)
or here:
The material is fairly heavy and, in my opinion, should not be shown without giving the students a chance to reflect on what Aaron has to say. He talks about how the entire history of the indigenous people of the Black Hills have been, and are still being, taken advantage of! He talks about their history, about their fight for independence, about their lives, and about their sufferings. Now, I wouldn't want to force students to talk about something like this but I am sure that they would be more than curious about the history of the Lakota people as presented by Aaron Huey and will need very little prodding to have an in depth conversation after watching this video. Some conversations that might happen?
Maybe start off with "What are your initial reactions?" or "Has anyone heard of this before?" or maybe even "Wait, this stuff is really happening?"
Perhaps that will lead into something like this, "How do we know he's telling us the truth?" or "How can we tell he's telling us the truth?" and thus: "Where did these statistics come from?"
Or, maybe it would lead this way: "Is their any reason to believe this man is lying to us?" or "What bias does the man have?"
These questions, I believe, would be the crux of the lesson. They would be the real reason for exploring any further! Or perhaps this question would be: "What are the solutions to this issue?" or "Can the problem be solved?" And it would become my job to allow students to begin exploring different sources! I suggest something like Stats Canada but depending on the direction your students feel like taking it would be impossible to predict the sources they might need. They might even want to research the history of the Aboriginal people in Canada and the domestic statistics! Who knows! And it begins...
They research, they think, they probably scream a little because they can't find anything relevant or none of their information is consistent with any other information they find. They begin to see different sides of the story and start to connect Math with their Social Studies class, wouldn't it be great to see them ask their Social Studies teacher for help regarding their Math assignment!?
Questions like "Is this stuff for real?" or "Could you make sense of this for me?" or "How does this even happen in Canada?" or "How many different versions of history are there? Can you tell me about this one?"
Of course I am not at all prepared to lecture on the history of indigenous people in Canada but I do feel quite prepared to engage in conversation about indigenous history in Canada. This may even be a good entrance point for an Elder in the local aboriginal community to come and take part in the conversation!
From here on the only natural thing to do is to learn more about these topics! So with the program of studies in mind I would ask students to collect all of their learning into one grande presentation to share with the class. Ask students to include how they found their information, to create unique ways of presenting their data, and to discuss how they verified the data that they found.
And have fun! There is nothing more boring than a teacher who doesn't want to be teaching. Encourage conversation, wait for responses, give your students a lot of time to reflect on what they see and include everyone in the activities. Above all else I would say, be excited for what you are about to learn! You do not know everything! So don't act like it! When we are learning alongside or students we tend to reflect our strongest learning characteristics. I've found that students often need to learn how to learn, and that can't be shoved down their throats; it's gotta be from watching us learn.
Here are the files. Take a look at them, enjoy them, try them! I know I certainly will!
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