The Interdisciplinary Instruction team has curated resources of content and instructional approaches to help educators include and highlight the important contributions of Black and African American Mainers in authentic ways. These project-based strategies include finding local historical figures and guest speakers, researching local history, and bridging content areas.
Incorporating a mathematical and scientific lens into the teaching of African American Studies of Maine can provide an authentic learning experience for all students, highlighting the contributions that African Americans have made in the fields of mathematics, science, and technology.
A 5E inquiry model allows students to construct their own understandings of concepts and skills and then apply them to a new situation. In the example below, students develop background knowledge about an African American scientist or mathematician and apply that knowledge to answer a challenging question.
Engage: Engage students with a video, prompt, or image to capture their attention and develop questions.
- If you use the Questions Formulation Technique to support student questioning, an example of a Q focus statement could be: A world without African American scientists and mathematicians. (Use this link to learn more about the Question Formulation Technique and upcoming PD.
- You could also use a video or image that illustrates the contributions of African American scientists and mathematicians.
- From there, you can use student questions to drive the unit or prompt students with your own guiding/assessment question. A potential guiding/assessment question could be: How would the world be different if the contributions of African American mathematicians and scientists were overlooked?
Explore: Students explore the contributions of African American scientists and mathematicians to develop the needed background knowledge to answer the guiding/assessment question.
- This process requires teacher scaffolding and guiding question(s) to support students as they research. How students research depends on skill and age level. It can range from teacher-provided resources to students conducting independent research.
- An example of a guiding question for the Explore phase could be:
- What contributions did African American scientists and mathematicians make to their fields?
- Some resources to support their research may include:
- Mathematicians of the African Diaspora: https://www.mathad.com/home
- From Hidden to Modern Figures:
Explain: This phase is for formative assessment and clearing up misconceptions through direct instruction, feedback, and reflection.
Elaborate: Students communicate their new knowledge by answering the guiding/assessment question. Elaborate is also the student assessment, which could include a rubric and expectations.
- The modality of this is very flexible. For example, students could contribute their information to a whole class website to share what they learned with the world, present to an authentic audience of community members, develop a podcast that can be shared, create videos that are shared through YouTube or Social Media, or a documentary that discusses the contributions of the scientist or mathematician and what the world be like without those contributions.
Evaluate: Students and teachers collaborate to evaluate and score student learning through feedback and reflection. This process can look very different depending on the age of students.
For more information about interdisciplinary instruction, please contact Kathy Bertini, Interdisciplinary Instruction Coordinator at kathy.bertini@maine.gov