Social Issues and Mathematics Camp
Investigate social and political issues
Build confidence with math
For all learners
Camp Resources
This page includes links and resources related to our camp activities.
This is not a comprehensive list of all activities and many resources extend beyond what we covered.
Please ask your child about what we did in camp related to these resources!
Warm Ups
Which One Doesn't Belong (WODB)
Every set of four has a simple question: "Which one doesn't belong?" There is no right answer, you just have to be able to explain your thinking.
We used shapes to introduce the idea and then looked at a few graph problems to get us ready to interpret some environmental graphs.
Estimation 180
We will use days 51, 52, and 53 to get us thinking about volume for designing water containers.
3D Modeling and TinkerCad
TinkerCad Guided Explorations
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Complete these 7 activities
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Complete the Introduction to Primitive Shapes
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Complete the Let's Learn Tinkercad! guide
Using 3D Modeling and Printing
Climate Change
Graphing Climate Trends
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National Climate Assessment (see especially Overview and Report Findings, pages 8 and 10)
Discussing Quality of Sources
International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions: How To Spot Fake News
Especially consider the source for the natural disasters data and how long they have been collecting these data.
Why Climate Change Makes Stronger Storms
Water and Humanitarian Crises
Water Insecurity Facts
There's No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster
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There’s No Such Thing as a Natural Disaster | By Neil Smith
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There's actually no such thing as a natural disaster | By Kendra Pierre-Louis
Water Needs in an Emergency
Voting and Elections
CGP Grey
Politics In The Animal Kingdom
This is an excellent, if somewhat fast, overview that inspired several of our activities.
Federal Government Background
Click for a more detailed view with links to each source.
House of Representatives and Types of Maps
Consider a range of types of maps:
Maps we looked at:
Each image links to the source.
Gerrymandering
Possible Solutions
Moon Duchin, of Tufts U., has helped create a program to train mathematicians to serve as expert witnesses in court cases over redrawn electoral districts.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/Meet-the-Math-Professor/239260
Instant-runoff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting#Global_use
Single Transferable Vote and Multi-Member Districts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote#Governments_with_STV
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/10/opinion/house-representatives-size-multi-member.html
Changing the Size of the House
Each image links to the source.
