21st-Century Access to Urban Education: Integrating Social Justice, Geospatial Technologies, and Mathematical Understanding

• In Event: 58.084 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: 58.084-13 - Research in Mathematics Education SIG Poster Session

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the impact of integrating Mathematics Education, student use of geospatial professional technologies (GIS), and social justice in an out-of-school program for low income, under represented youth. The outcomes are of a National Science Foundation ITEST-funded project that engaged students from a large urban center in using STEM skills to address community problems. Exploring the complexities of students developing mathematical understanding requires multiple approaches, time, and researchers leveraged qualitative methodologies to examine how this program impacted students’ understanding of interpreting graphical data to explore urban planning issues in their own neighborhoods. Researchers found that integrating the meaningful, social justice platform with the use of professional GIS technologies to explore data showed an increase in student’s mathematical understanding.

Author

• Dennis DeBay, University of Colorado - Denver