The Department of Mathematics & Statistics would like to welcome:
Molly Kelton, San Diego University, on Monday, December 14th, at 11:00 am in SCP 229
Title: Math on the Move: Studying Embodied Mathematics Learning Across Settings
Abstract: Mathematics in United States museums is on the rise. Today science centers and other informal learning institutions across the US offer exhibitions and public programs about geometry, number, pattern, algebra, calculus, as well as ratio and proportion. While the opportunities for engaging with mathematics in museums are expanding, to date only a handful of research studies have investigated learning in these environments. Even less is understood about how learning mathematics in museums and at school might be related. In this presentation I discuss the components of a research program that brings together contemporary theories of embodied mathematical cognition and studies of mathematics learning in and across formal and museum settings. Drawing on diverse ethnographic and design-based research projects on museum-based mathematics learning, I attend both to how learners assemble mathematics learning pathways across disparate settings as well as to how informal learning environments can productively expand what counts as mathematics. To exemplify this research program, I discuss a video-based ethnography I conducted on school excursions to a nationally known mathematics exhibition, Math Moves! (www.mathmoves.org), addressing the overarching questions of how participating students and teachers made sense of the exhibition, interacted with its technologies, and related their experiences to ongoing participation in the mathematics classroom.