Entry Slip Oct 7th : Moshe Renert on math and climate change

    I think it's very suitable for educators to incorporate sustainability in mathematics as we're currently trying to change teaching math towards inquiry within students. Instead of feeding students the theorems and formulas, it would give students a more impactful learning experience if they're able to make their own discoveries, read stories, and do problems that are more relatable. The things they learn within the classroom will stay in their minds for longer and increase interest within the subject. Climate change in our world today is very real and it's already been impacting all of us drastically from using compostable straws to high levels of temperatures in the summer. That's why, I think it would only make sense for students to see the world using sustainable mathematics education through renewed mathematics. I agree with Renert that "Mathematics is popularly conceived of as a pure body of knowledge, independent of its environment, and value-free". A lot of students sometimes don't even want to try math problems because the question looks boring and complicated. I want to change that misconception where if they see a problem, whether it's actually hard or easy, they should be excited to figure the problem out, and have a similar mindset when people want to try out new games or puzzles.

    Some of the ways and ideas educators can use issues of the environment in their lesson is to include descriptive modeling in problem-solving. Word problems are good for when you want math topics to be relatable and to imagine a representation of what specific math topics looks like in real life. One can also understand and start to notice how math shows up in real life within word problems. If educators can incorporate sustainability, students can think about important current issues that is affecting all of us while understanding and learning math. I appreciate how Renert describes that "a critical stance could also be constructive for mathematics educators who wish to approach issues of the environment, such as climate change." In other classes, we talk a lot about social issues and I believe that talking about sustainability and climate change issues are just as important and relevant for students.