The main goal of this project is the development of a new course titled "Math for Society" that builds a community of students and faculty knowledgeable about mathematics and social advocacy in the sense that they are able to act as advocates for the societal issues they care about. The dual focus of the course, learning the mathematics in context and using it in advocacy, creates in students an awareness of how mathematics applies to society that is rarely achieved even in reform and applied math courses.
An innovative selection of topics is made from discrete mathematics, linear algebra, probability and statistics, decision theory, and operations research that have applications to homeland security, social organizations, and environmental science. Applications and issues such as social networks, information overload, and climate change did not exist just a decade or two ago. The Math for Society course demonstrates the relevance of mathematics to these matters. Topics include applied graph theory, voting theory, forensic accounting, statistical approaches to authorship attribution, latent semantic indexing, and statistical methods for climate science.
A key innovation is the packaging of learning materials into concise portions that are covered in the classroom in one to four weeks. This is where the underlying commonality of the mathematical techniques becomes important. For example, on the surface it may seem that there is nothing in common with statistical methods for climate science, authorship attribution, and latent semantic indexing, but all use principal component analysis.
A major component of the project is writing a textbook on the mathematics for social advocacy. The course and course materials are designed for mathematics, mathematics education, and computer science majors. The book, however, is designed to reach a very wide audience including those who deal with social advocacy issues on a regular basis like professionals in science policy, law, politics, social services, and journalism. Further, the Math for Society course is designed to have a service learning component where teams of students develop and present materials on the mathematics behind social issues important to them at local high schools and libraries.
This project has one over-arching vision that guides activities: to use our theoretical knowledge of mathematics to tackle some of the hardest, most controversial issues facing society, many of which have yet to be properly defined. We are building a community of students and faculty knowledgeable about mathematics in a way that they will be able to act as advocates for the societal issues they care about. The dual focus – learning the mathematics in context and using it in advocacy – creates a deep awareness of how mathematics applies to society. Our objectives are to: i) Develop curriculum related to these new applications; ii) Generate research opportunities related to these new applications; iii) Promote interdisciplinary work through workshops for faculty; and iv) Undertake outreach activities to the schools and the public in general. The major activity of this project is to infuse the mathematics curriculum with social advocacy applications. We developed thirty-seven modules to support teaching mathematics and social advocacy in a variety of courses such as precalculus, calculus, differential equations, probability theory and statistics. We supervised twenty-two undergraduate student projects relating mathematics to modern real world examples. We also designed and developed two new courses: Mathematical Methods for Analyzing Data; and Mathematics and the Law. Mathematics and the Law is a lower division course with no prerequisites beyond high school mathematics. It is an examination of the underlying mathematical principles of the statistical and probabilistic arguments that have become part of the legal process. Mathematical Methods for Analyzing Data is an upper division course with linear algebra, elementary statistics, and discrete mathematics or transition to higher mathematics as prerequisites. It is a rigorous proofs-based presentation of topics from linear algebra, statistics, and graph theory for analyzing data. We paid careful attention to sustainability, transportability, and broader impacts. All course materials are available in the form of books and papers for use by other faculty on the project website http://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/skingan/MSA/. The project has generated many opportunities for original research and expository articles and we will continue to work on it even after funding ends. We gave over twenty talks and several interviews to promote the concept of mathematics and social advocacy to the scientific community and the general public. In conclusion, mathematics, as the ultimate expressions of reason, is of great value in creating a better society. This project is devoted to showcasing how mathematics can and should be used to address issues of importance in a free society.
