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Math

“The most urgent social issue affecting poor people and people of color is economic access… [and that] depends crucially on math and science literacy.”

~ Bob Moses

LESSON PLANS

Aboriginals and Early Settlers – Math Component
Source: Development a Global Perspective for Educators
Uses math to introduce human rights through the historical and present impacts of European colonization on native Canadians. Provides a basis for interpreting primary data. Easily adapted to US context.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies, math


Empowering Women: Empowering Children
Source: UNICEF
An introduction to gender equality using video, visual aids, statistical data, and interactive lessons. Designed to align with National Council for the Social Studies standards.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, math


A Guide for Integrating Issues of Social and economic Justice into Mathematics 
Source: Radicalmath.org
Curriculum guide with a definition of “social justice math” and discussion of its advantages and drawbacks and how to integrate social justice issues into the math curriculum
Grade Level: middle-high school
Subject Area: math, economics


Radical Math
Source: Radicalmath.org
A resource to support the integration of economic and social justice issues into math classes. Organized by math topic, resource type and social justice issues with sources for numerical data on each.
Grade Level: middle-high school
Subject Area: math, economics


Recognizing the Undocumented
Source: Teaching Tolerance, 2006
Activities that focus on the roles that undocumented immigrants play in the harvest and processing of food, help students understand the status of and choices that face undocumented workers and appreciate the importance of human rights.
Subject area: social studies, math, technology
Grade Level: high school


The Rights of Refugees
Source:  UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Lesson plan that approaches the refugee experience from a number of subject areas, including art, history, geography, math, and science. Topics include Refugees in History, Refugee Rights and Responsibilities, Refugee Women and Girls.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: social studies, current events, art, language arts, geography

The UDHR & Contemporary Issues
Source: HRE USA
This lesson asks students to correlate the UDHR to current newspaper articles which illustrate the portrayal of human rights in one of four situations (rights achieved, rights denied, rights violated, rights in conflict). Students will explain that situation, the correlation to the UDHR, and then write a reflection on the role of the UDHR in potentially resolving the situation.
Grade Level: high school
Subject Area: social studies


Statistical Analysis of Asylum Seekers and Refugees Worldwide
Source:  UDHR Poster Series and Teacher’s Guide, Amnesty International, 2002
Lesson on UDHR Article 14 using refugee statistics to calculate mean, median and mode figures and construct charts.
Grade Level: middle – high school
Subject Area: math, social studies


Walking for Water
Source: Development a Global Perspective for Educators
Lesson plan that incorporates the world water crisis into middle school math curriculum. Examines the accessibility of water in distance and in time and asks students to computer with their walking speed. Reviews the relationship between time, distance, and speed and conversion of units.
Grade Level: middle school
Subject Area: social studies, environmental studies, math

BOOKS

Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice By the Number
Collection of more than 30 articles shows teachers how to weave social-justice principles throughout the math curriculum and how to integrate social-justice math into other curricular areas as well.

  • Editors:Eric Guststein and Bob Peterson
  • Publisher: Rethinking Schools, Ltd., 2005
  • Subject Area: social studies, math
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