These activities were written to engage students in a mathematical conversation about social justice issues. The activities do not necessarily correspond to a particular target, or unit of study. Rather, they can be used anytime of the year, in any high school math class. Each activity has three parts. The first part invites students to engage with the issue by making predictions. The second part gives facts and graphs that require students to use mathematics to answer questions about the topic. Finally, the third part asks students to make a decision about where they stand on the issue. To learn more about how I facilitate these problems, you can read a blog post here.
Topic: Cost of medications
Math topic: Exponential vs. Linear Functions
Activity: EpiPen Prices
Topic: Environmental Issues
Math topic: Math Literacy
Activity: Recycling and Reusing Clothing
Topic: Violence in Chicago
Math topic: Domain and Rate of Change
Activity: Using Domain to Understand a Story
Topic: College Tuition Costs
Math topic: Comparing Data Sets
Activity: College Tuition
Topic: Charitable Giving
Math topic: Creating Graphs
Activity: #GivingTuesday
Topic: Environmental Issues
Math topic: Estimation & Systems of Linear Equations
Activity: Plastic in the Ocean
Topic: Safe Drinking Water
Math topic: Statistics
Activity: Flint Water Crisis
Topic: American Incarcerations
Math topic: Math Literacy
Activity: American Incarcerations
Topic: Federally owned land
Math topic: Geometry (area)
Activity: Federal Land
Topic: Perceptions of World Poverty
Math topic: Estimation
Activity: World Stats
Topic: American Incarcerations
Math topic: Math Literacy
Activity: American Incarcerations
Topic: Federally owned land
Math topic: Geometry (area)
Activity: Federal Land
Topic: Perceptions of World Poverty
Math topic: Estimation
Activity: World Stats
Topic: Fairness of legal consequences for under privileged
Math topic: Fair vs. Equal
Activity: Speeding Tickets
Topic: Understanding statistics related to world health & wealth
Math topic: Estimation
Activity: World Stats
Topic: US Poverty Rates
Math topic: Piecewise Functions, Trig Functions
Activity: US Poverty
Math topic: Fair vs. Equal
Activity: Speeding Tickets
Topic: Understanding statistics related to world health & wealth
Math topic: Estimation
Activity: World Stats
Topic: US Poverty Rates
Math topic: Piecewise Functions, Trig Functions
Activity: US Poverty