Once a month, join us for a virtual discussion around a film depicting the lives of prominent mathematicians from underrepresented groups and learn about their passions and struggles. Watch the film at home and connect for a panel where we will talk about the math and the people and how this relates to each one of us in the current times.
Hundreds of Navajo children in recent years have found themselves at the center of a lively collaboration with mathematicians from around the world. The children stay late after school and assemble over the summer to study mathematics, using a model called math circles, which originated in Eastern Europe and which has proliferated across the United States. This notion of student-centered learning puts children in charge of exploring mathematics to their own joy and satisfaction, with potentially long-lasting results.
Navajo Math Circles is documents the meeting of two worlds: that of some of the country’s most accomplished mathematicians and math educators, with the children and teachers in the underserved, largely rural Navajo educational system.
Our Panelists:
- Dr. Robert Klein - Executive Director of the Alliance of Indigenous Math Circles and Professor of Mathematics at Ohio University
- Dr. Kamuela Yong - Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Hawaii, first Native Hawaiian to earn a Ph.D. in applied mathematics, and co-founder of Indigenous Mathematicians
- Michael T. Charles - Graduate Student, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The Ohio State University, Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) fellow, Navajo Nation
- Irvilinda Bahe - Former Navajo Math Circles participant, Navajo Nation
- Natanii Yazzie - Former Navajo Math Circles participant, Navajo Nation
Registrants will receive a link for the movie one week before the panel. Watch the film on your own ahead of time and connect via Zoom on the day of the panel.
