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¡Alerta! Our World is Changing; Revealing impacts on our world with mathematics

¡Alerta! Our World Is Changing: Revealing Impacts on Our World with Mathematics

Kyndall Brown, Dee Crescitelli, Silvia Llamas-Flores, and Carlos LópezLeiva

Climate change has brought about expansive changes and has had negative global ecological and economic consequences. In addition, the widespread prevalence of environmental pollution has been exasperated by human-caused pollution, which causes devastating harm to our earth’s ecosystem. In our previous blog we discussed reciprocity as being one of the 4R’s, which describes kinship and obligation as “cyclical” or mutual (Harris & Wasileski, 2024, p. 5).  As such, we have an obligation to respect our mother Earth by limiting and/or eliminating human-caused pollution.

This blog explores littering pollution and extreme weather events, both of which, one can argue, serve as exploitation of the Earth and its resources. The intent of this blog is to highlight and raise awareness of the harmful effects of human activity on our Earth through a series of mathematical tasks and ideas designed for high school teachers. The two tasks in this blog focus on the mathematical modeling of face mask disposal and extreme weather events, both of which can be modeled by exponential functions.

In the following activities, students are tasked with doing a model analysis, creating a mathematical model that best represents the data, extrapolating, and making recommendations based on their findings. The extent of scaffolding that is needed to create and interpret the mathematical models depends on the level of experience and exposure that students have with Desmos and running different types of regressions.  The following Desmos linear regression guide is provided for your convenience.  We encourage you to make the tasks/topics your own by scaffolding the activities in ways that are conducive to your individual students’ needs.

Lastly, in addition to the two tasks, there are a series of ideas that can be used to explore other climate change topics using a mathematical lens. The hope is that teachers feel compelled to explore issues of climate change with their students and have meaningful and impactful conversations about what our responsibilities are to our Earth and ways to mitigate the damaging effects of climate change.

 

Extreme Weather 

As students engage with the topic of extreme weather, consider the following discussion topics.  The hope is to encourage students to use a mathematical lens to make informed and responsible decisions about the role of climate change on our Earth.

  • Using a mathematical argument, based on your finding above, what recommendations would you make to stakeholders about climate change?
  • If you were speaking to your high school graduating class, what message would you convey about climate change? Why? How can you use a mathematical argument to help support your message?
  • Based on the extrapolation data, what are some ways that human activity can counter climate change?

 

Activity 1

There has been a significant increase in storms and floods in the 21st century.  According to the International Disaster Database Tracking (EM-DAT), the cumulative number of natural disasters/extreme weather events in Europe since 1939 has significantly increased in recent years (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (Em-Dat), n.d).

The data seems to indicate that in the past 100 years, more than 1,500 extreme weather events, including droughts, floods, storms, and extreme temperatures, have occurred in Europe, with approximately 67% of those events taking place since early 2000.

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¡Alerta, Wildfires! Our Relationship and Responsibility

¡Alerta, Wildfires! Our Relationship and Responsibility

Kyndall Brown, Silvia Llamas-Flores, Dee Crescitelli, and Carlos LópezLeiva

The TODOS Alerta! blog introduces a series of information and mathematics lessons on environmental issues that help us become aware of and rethink our collective relationship with our land and world. This blog- the second in the series- specifically explores the dangerous wildfires that have emerged around the US and practices that have been historically and culturally in place to relate our relationship with and responsibility for wildfires.

Wildland fires are classified as either naturally occurring or human-caused. According to the National Park Service, however, human-caused wildfires are significantly more common, with human involvement triggering 85% to 90% of wildfires (Frontline Wildfire Defense, 2024).

California’s dry climate provides prime conditions for a wildfire, and unfortunately, it doesn’t take much to spark a fire that can devastate an entire area.

What Causes Wildfires in California?

The most common causes of wildfires in California include:

  • Burning Debris: One of the most common causes of wildfires is embers from burning debris. Wind can carry these embers for up to 7 miles without extinguishing them.
  • Human Activity: Activities such as driving cars, pulling trailers, having a gender reveal party, or doing yard maintenance.
  • Electrical Power: Fallen power lines are the third most common cause of wildfires in California and were the cause of the deadliest fire in history—the Camp Fire. However, human activity causes far more wildfires than electrical power lines.
  • Campfires: Camping is an incredibly popular summer activity, but unfortunately, many campers don’t practice proper fire safety. As a result, unattended campfires are historically one of the leading causes of wildfires in the state. (Frontline Wildfire Defense, 2024).

Arson, lightning, discarded cigarettes, and equipment malfunctions are other events that can lead to devastating wildfires in California.

Indigenous Fire Suppression is an example of the 5 R’s in practice. The following is excerpted from a segment from NPR’s Science Friday, How Indigenous Burning Practices Could Prevent Massive Wildfires, which shares indigenous burning practices that used to be practiced prior to the removal of Native American peoples from California lands.

Those cultural burns—or prescribed burns, as they’re often called now by fire agencies—are a form of keeping wildfire in check, a practice the state and federal agencies do use, but experts say isn’t leaned on enough as a fire prevention tactic.

But what experts say is often missing from this conversation is the racist removal of Native American people from California. Along with their physical beings, the experts say that their knowledge of taking care of the land was also removed, resulting in overgrown forests.

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Our World, Our Place, Our Home, Our Responsibility

Our World, Our Place, Our Home, Our Responsibility

Carlos LópezLeiva, Silvia Llamas-Flores, Dee Crescitelli, and Kyndall Brown

Our life experiences can talk to our bodies about how the world is all interconnected. The basic elements of our world speak to us through their embodied constant collaboration or interconnectedness. Take the fire; it grows and moves, dancing with the wind. Feel the water in the rain in synchronous rhythmic movements coordinated by the wind. Admire a little cascade of water that is animated by the capricious shape of the earth and rocks under the water. Their collaboration makes the beauty of the cascades that are decorated by plants that thrive in the context where earth and water collaborate. Take the power of the fire and the earth combined to generate the most beautiful and precious colorful stones. As these collaborations take place to create beauty that we admire and use, they can also work together to change landscapes and keep the earth transforming and evolving. Earth moves, and it is alive! It works as an integrated system. This integrated system is coordinated and developed in many ways, and many of these ways are inherently mathematical.

As previously alluded to (discussed), we are all interconnected. This includes the air, water, fire, earth [and all life therein]. If we truly value all life and act according to this ethos, not only would “[earth] take care of us,” but we would do our part to “take care” of the Earth. Interconnectedness, value, and care toward the Earth and all life on Earth are Indigenous core values. Recently, these values have been referred to as either the 4 Rs (Harris & Wasileski, 2004; Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001) or 5 Rs (Das & Strong, 2018, November 27; Dow, 2019, Summer; Tessaro et al., 2018). For example, in discussing Indigeneity and its contribution to and challenging of globalization (Harris & Wasileski, 2004), four values were identified from the many conversations by representatives of various Indigenous tribes during meetings facilitated by the Americans for Indian Opportunity, an advocacy organization that promotes self-determination of Indigenous people in the United States. The common values were Relationships, Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Redistribution. Relationships refers to our “kinship… to all living things, animals, plants, and rocks… [and] to the very stuff that stars are made of” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 4). Similarly, responsibility describes the “obligation… to take care of our relatives” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 4). Reciprocity describes kinship and obligation as “cyclical” or mutual and not one of “uneven… exchange obligations” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 5). Lastly, redistribution refers to a sharing obligation or “generosity [as] the most highly valued human quality” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 5). These 4 Rs broadly describe an ethos or a way of life that is in opposition to individualism, selfishness, the profit-motive, and exploitation of the Earth and its resources. In education settings, how have the 4 or 5 Rs been applied?

In an often-cited study, the 4 Rs were used to critique the lack of responsiveness and cultural sensitivity of indigenous students by the University of Alaska (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001). In this context, the 4Rs were Respect, Relevance, Reciprocal Relationships, and Responsibility. In this schooling context, these values referred to the need for faculty and staff of universities and colleges to respect the “cultural integrity” of First nations (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001, p. 6) to provide university experiences (content and practices) that are relevant to indigenous students and considerate of indigenous worldview; for faculty to engage in the “give-and-take” (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001, p. 13) exchange of knowledge (reciprocity) and learn alongside and even from First nation students; lastly, for faculty and staff to take on the responsibility for supporting Indigenous students to participate in traditional activities and for faculty and staff to attend Indigenous community events, discuss Indigenous worldviews in courses, and/or engage in outreach to Indigenous (tribes) and leaders. In this context, the expectation was for the faculty and staff of the university system to engage in practices that value and “care” for indigenous students.

Similarly, in the context of online professional development for principals of Indigenous schools across Canada (Tessaro et al., 2018), the previously discussed 4 Rs (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001) was expanded to 5 Rs. They decided to include Relationships because it “underlies” (Tessaro et al., 2018, p. 139) the 4 Rs. Because these researchers worked with principals, they wanted to make sure they made conscious efforts to “fortify relationships with teachers, students, family members, the local community, and the land.” (Tessaro et al., 2018, p. 139). Another example from education is how the 5 Rs were applied during K-12 science lessons (e.g., climate change, sustainability, flooding) By Judy Dow, an Abenaki basket-weaver and veteran educator (Das & Strong, 2018). In this classroom context, the 5Rs were respect, responsibility, reverence, reciprocity, and relationships. These are moral and ethical values that were passed along to her by family, and her belief was that if students “learn and remember… [these values could help the students] survive the changing world” (Dow, 2019 Summer) as a result of climate change, pollution, and disregard for all life.

So, from these various 4 and 5Rs that are reflective of indigenous core values (Das & Strong, 2018, November 27; Dow, 2019, Summer; Harris & Wasileski, 2004; Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001), we decided to focus on 4 of these Rs to help us analyze and describe the following mathematics and [science] lessons. The 4 Rs that we will be applying in this blog are relationship, reciprocity, responsibility, and respect. Similarly, we felt it was important to emphasize that we are in “kinship” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 4) or relationships with all life on Earth to remind us not to engage in “uneven… exchange obligations” (Harris & Wasileski, 2004, p. 5) but ones that are cyclical and examples of a “give-and-take” (Kirkness & Barnhardt, 2001, p. 13) dynamic or reciprocity. Closely related is responsibility. So, not only in relation to life that is mutually positive but also mindful that “we are responsible for our actions” (Dow, 2019 Summer, p. 16) that impacts all life. And in a similar vein, we must respect all life, our “kin” (i.e., human, and non-human). So, guided by these 4 Rs, we will discuss environmental issues and lesson plans that integrate these ideas for teachers and students.

In the months to come, Alerta! will share information and lessons about environmental issues that reference back to the common values (the 4 Rs): Relationships, Responsibility, Reciprocity, and Redistribution. Topics include but are not limited to, air quality, extreme weather events, littering, mining and mountain-top removal, and wildfires.

References

Das, A. & Strong, L (2018, November 27). Abolition Science Praxis Pt. 2 (Judy Dow). Abolition Science Radiohttps://www.abolitionscience.org/home/2018/11/13/abolition-science-praxis-pt-1-judy-dow.

Dow, J (2019, Summer). Going Through the Narrows. Potash Hill, 14-17. https://potash.emerson.edu/sites/default/files/2019/Spring/PotashHill-Spring-2019.pdf.

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#IstandwithRochelle

Mathematics is a cultural activity.  The way in which people engage in mathematics is often determined by who they are, where they are and how they and the people around them think about mathematics.   Ubiratan D’Ambrosio (2001) defines ethnomathematics as a term used to “express the relationship between culture and mathematics” (p. 308). As he explains, “Mathematics is a compilation of progressive discoveries and inventions from cultures around the world during the course of history. Its history and ethnography form a wonderful mosaic of cultural contributions.” (p. 310)
 
TODOS acknowledges that mathematics is a social construct.  In our cultures, in our homes and in our classrooms we jointly build meaning for what mathematics is. For these constructs to overlap, to agree, to form a common understanding across cultures, is the work of the classroom.
 
As D’Ambrosio (2001) writes, “An important component of mathematics education today should be to reaffirm, and in some instances to restore, the cultural dignity of children” (p. 308)
 
TODOS acts to develop tools to build a shared understanding of mathematics that gives each child a place in its definition, each culture recognition for its often unique way of visualizing mathematical ideas and each representation of these ideas thoughtful study.
 
TODOS holds itself accountable for this work and for advocating for those who provide the research and ideas that grow our understanding of social justice in mathematics.
 
TODOS stands with Rochelle Gutiérrez and other researchers who provide clarity so we remember what we teach, whom we are teaching and center language, culture and literacy in the mathematics that we teach and in the ways that we teach it.
 
TODOS 2018 Conference will address this goal through the lens of advocating for equity and social justice. (http://www.todos-math.org/) Please join us as we further and deepen our understanding of the role of social justice in mathematics education.
 
Expect to hear from TODOS’ Advocacy Committee.  This group is building the tools we need to proactively support and build on the work of Rochelle and other scholars who are working tirelessly to support us as we advocate for high quality mathematics education for all students.
 
Please read our joint position statement with NCSM to further acquaint yourself with our stance. (http://www.todos-math.org/socialjustice)
 
Take to social media and pass this along:  #IstandwithRochelle
 
Diane Kinch
President, TODOS:  Mathematics for ALL
D’Ambrosio, U. (2001). What is ethnomathematics and how can it help children in schools. Teaching Children Mathematics,7(6) 308-310.