PCWAC121 - Social Justice in Mathematics
Course Description
Are you interested about issues of fairness? Do you want to learn how to use math to make sense of and change the world? This course will explore topics in social justice including the criminal justice system, poverty, and fair wages using math tools including Algebra and Statistics. Students will analyze and discuss the fairness of the world around them.
The goal of this course is to encourage students to use mathematics to analyze and critique social situations that challenge the idea of fairness and equity within and around their communities. At the conclusion of the course, students will be encouraged to continue to learn and use mathematics to play an active role in being changemakers in their community.
This course is ideal for college-bound 9th through 12th grade students interested in topics of social justice and desire to use practical tools to become agents of change.
Please note times are in Central Standard Time (CST).
Learner Outcomes
- Students write, solve, and graph systems of linear equations to determine how long it takes to pay off a ticket and debate the fairest ways for cities to raise revenues without harming their poorest residents.
- Students calculate conditional probabilities to determine the likelihood of false-positives and false-negatives and discuss the tradeoffs between safety and accuracy.
- Students use systems of linear equations to explore the relationship between wage and labor, analyze the economics of fast-food restaurants, and debate whether the federal government should increase the minimum wage.
- Students analyze almost thirty years’ worth of data summarized in frequency tables and discuss whether they see evidence of racial bias in who receives the death penalty and who does not.
- Students compare the distributions of excessive force of two police departments and explore how the shape of the distribution affects the effectiveness of different solution attempts.
- Students will evaluate maps to determine geometrical solutions to solving food insecurity problems.
- Students will investigate the likelihood of police searches using frequency tables.
Recommendations
- Online registration closes at noon 4 days prior to the start of the class.
- For late registration options, please contact SMU College Prep at 214-768-2267 for assistance.