Sarah J. Greenwald

Using Popular Culture in the Mathematics and Mathematics Education Classroom

Educators are extremely interested in using popular culture to enhance the teaching and learning of mathematics. Large audiences attending related talks at national mathematics meetings and colleges across the nation, including some that are standing room-only, provide evidence of that claim. There ar e many resources that discuss mathematical references in various popular culture media, including movies [11], comics [8], and various television shows (e. g. , [4] and [6]) . However, there are only a few references designed to help teachers incorporate popular culture into their mathematics classrooms in a meaningful way (e.g., [1], [5], [6], [7], and [10]). As Morrell explains [9],

r dr r: ENGAGING STUDENTS WITH SIGNIFICANT MATHEMATICAL CONTENT FROM THE SIMPSONS

ABSTRACT The Simpsons is an ideal source of fun ways to introduce important mathematical concepts, motivate students, and reduce math anxiety. We discuss examples from The Simpsons related to calculus, geometry, and number theory that we have incorporated into the classroom. We explore student reactions and educational benefits and difficulties encountered.

The use of letter writing projects in teaching geometry

ABSTRACT Assignments in which students write letters to a non-mathematician who needs their help enable students to explore mathematical ideas deeply and encourage them to communicate mathematics clearly while providing them with the benefits of creative writing in a familiar format aimed at a non-expert audience. Teachers who recognize the benefits of exploratory writing in mathematics are often hesitant to utilize this method because of the difficulties and time involved in grading papers. This paper will provide examples of geometry writing projects and will discuss the goals and difficulties of using these projects. The process of grading and allowing student revisions of these projects will be explored by using a time-saving grading method.

To Boldly Go: Current Work and Future Directions in Mathematics and Popular Culture

Mathematics begins with definitions. Therefore, we will begin by attempting to define what is meant by “popular” culture. Historically, popular culture was defined by its opposition to “high” culture: such as the opera, historic art, classical music, traditional theater or literature [1]. High culture was for the upper class; popular culture, the lower. But the distinction between the two has always been blurry and became even more so with the advent of radio, television, film, and the mass production of culture in the middle of the twentieth century. Today, one can find many competing definitions of popular culture from various sources, both academic and popular. According to John Storey [8], “‘Culture’ in cultural studies [which encompasses the study of popular culture] is defined politically rather than aesthetically as the texts and practices of everyday life.” The question of what counts as popular culture is thus open to debate, a debate that is itself an inherent part of any arena of cultural studies. In other words, as noted by the popularly created Wikipedia [14], “Curiously, though almost everybody spends their lives immersed in popular culture, nobody seems able to agree on what popular culture consists of.” Because of this ongoing conversation, any definition we give here would necessarily be more or less subjective. As mathematicians, we are in a slight quandary: definitions are the foundation of mathematics, largely due to their de facto objectivity. How then can we study popular culture if we cannot agree on what it is? To avoid this dilemma, we will eschew defining popular culture specifically, but will include movies, television shows (both scripted and unscripted), plays, musicals, “popular” books, and even advertising. This

Klein's beer: Futurama comedy and writers in the classroom

Abstract Here we explore the educational implications of classroom activities related to the backgrounds and motivations of talented Hollywood comedy writers and the mathematical moments they created for the Emmy Award-winning animated sitcom Futurama.

Mathematically Talented Women in Hollywood: Fred in Angel

Abstract Given the increase in the number of fictional women mathematicians and scientists on television and in the movies, educators who wish to incorporate pop culture into their classrooms need tools with which to evaluate these portrayals. In this article we summarize studies related to the impact of Hollywood representations on girls and then we provide a case study example of the character Fred Burkle from the television series Angel. In addition we provide a theoretical foundation and popular culture role model checklist that can be used to analyze other representations.

Teaching Students About Women and Mathematics: An Interview with Two Course Designers

Women in mathematics have made great strides during the last 100+ years. During this same period, educators, historians, and mathematicians have publicized the accomplishments of some of these women in order to provide role models to show that women can and do succeed in mathematics. As a part of this effort, faculty began offering entire courses on women and mathematics at the college level. In this chapter we describe our motivations for designing and teaching such courses. Using a series of interrelated questions formatted as an interview with two course designers, we highlight commonalities and differences in our approaches to teaching about women and mathematics. We also explore ways to teach about women and mathematics on a smaller scale, rather than as an entire course. For those who would like to adopt or adapt one of these approaches, we discuss benefits and challenges and provide references to our own and other courses on women and mathematics.

Incorporating the Mathematical Achievements of Women and Minority Mathematicians into Classrooms

There are many references for activities that incorporate general multiculturalism into the classroom (e.g., [4, 21, 29]). There are also numerous “women in mathematics” courses that focus on history and equity issues. Yet, except for a few sources such as [19], [23], [24], [26], and [27], sources that discuss women and minorities in mathematics do not include related activities for the classroom that contain significant mathematical content, and those that do are mainly aimed at the middle grades or high school level. This is unfortunate since students benefit from the inclusion of the achievements of women and minorities in mathematics classes, as “the result is that students will see mathematics as a discipline that transcends culture, time, and gender, and as a discipline for everyone, everywhere.” [19, page xi] Since there were only a handful of known women and minority mathematicians before the last 200 years, an effective study of them must focus on recent history. Projects that include such recent history are harder to create because of scarce resources for the classroom, but they are beneficial because students more readily identify with these mathematicians for the reasons stated in the next section. After examining the importance of incorporating the achievements of women and minority mathematicians into classrooms, we will discuss the methodology of historical projects about mathematicians and their mathematics. Then we will explore the implementation of these projects and the inclusion of some women and minority mathematicians as we give examples related to three living mathematicians: Andrew Wiles, Carolyn Gordon, and David Blackwell.

Women in Mathematics

March 2019 Notices of the aMericaN MatheMatical society 395 lection are written for a broad mathematical audience that includes students. This volume grew out of a contributed paper session at MAA MathFest 2015 that was sponsored by the Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM). In connection with the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the Mathematical Association of America, the session sought to “recognize the contributions, achievements, and progress of women mathematicians over the past 100 years” through “talks about mathematics done by women and historical or biographical presentations celebrating women in mathematics.” As the editors note in their preface, the resulting collection of articles is a mix of current scholarship and exposition on a wide variety of topics related to women in mathematics as opposed to a balanced study of the participation of women in mathematics during this time. Some of the articles summarize or extend work that has appeared previously, including Judy Green and Jeanne LaDuke’s detailed documentary history of all of the American women who earned PhDs in mathematics from American and European universities between 1886 and 1939 and Margaret Murray’s research on American women who earned PhDs in mathematics between the years 1940 and 1959. As a result, the volume also serves as a survey of a portion of the existing literature and compellingly invites the reader to delve deeper into that work. The first two parts of the book are dedicated to telling the stories of women mathematicians in articles that range in style from formal historical and cultural studies to personal reflections and collections of interviews. These articles include more than eighty biographical profiles of women mathematicians and statisticians as well as numerous more concise descriptions of the experiences and contributions of women in these fields. The profiles are a mix of short sketches grouped within larger discussions of the mathematical and social context of a particular time, place, or culture and more in-depth studies of the professional and personal lives of individual women. Most of the profiles Women in Mathematics: Celebrating the Centennial of the Mathematical Association of America Janet L. Beery, Sarah J. Greenwald, Jacqueline A. Jensen-Vallin, and Maura B. Mast, editors Springer International Publishing, 2017 ISBN: 978-3319666938

Popular Culture in Teaching, Scholarship, and Outreach: The Simpsons and Futurama

Subject to thoughtful analysis of the benefits and challenges, popular culture can be an ideal source of fun ways to connect students and the general public to mathematics. My colleague Andrew Nestler and I created, class-tested, and widely shared activities related to the Twentieth Century Fox television show The Simpsons. The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) provides us with an analytic framework to develop, improve, and share our activities. We designed the activities to introduce or review important mathematical concepts and engage students. Later I expanded my interest into Futurama, another Twentieth Century Fox television show. I will describe informal outreach activities connected to both programs, including our educational website Simpsonsmath.com and my interactive lecture that audiences have accessed worldwide from a Futurama DVD. I will summarize the reception of my work by departmental colleagues, the institution, and the mathematical community. I will reflect on how this work has affected students and general audiences. I will also consider the direct and indirect impacts on my career and the unique challenges and rewards of working with popular culture in teaching, scholarship, and outreach.