Abstract
This paper describes innovative ways of bringing mathematical learning into community venues in rural settings. We selected highly engaging mathematical activities, adapted them for middle school youth and their families, and brought them to the “locavore” contexts of Farmers Markets and community agricultural fairs. “STEM Guides”—community people who were hired to connect youth with local STEM resources—set up math-oriented booths at local Farmers Markets and fairs. They enlisted visitors in weighing produce, comparing weights of typical fruits/vegetables to record-weighing produce, and composing community-supported agriculture (CSA) baskets with specified ratios of different types of produce. Pilot findings from four trials with 91 participants are reported. Specifically, we examine: 1) what is needed for non-specialist STEM Guides to facilitate mathematics activities in these contexts; 2) features of participant engagement; and 3) ways of matching venues with meaningful place-based mathematics, in this case, measurement and mental mathematics. This work demonstrates that it is possible to start with a local venue, identify key mathematical concepts that are woven into this venue, and incorporate mathematics that appeals to a variety of participants. We discuss the idea of rural “community math,” and the benefits of making math more of a community enterprise.
Highlights
The work described in this paper, Farmers Market Math, took place in Maine, the most rural state in the U.S It was part of a larger project, the STEM Guides Project, which brings science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] to 10- to 18-year-old youth and their families in out-of-school settings
Might there be an existing, though unrecognized, genre of out-of-school STEM programs that can be adapted to reach many rural youth and their families? The aim of the STEM Guides Project is to connect with youth where they live, using a unique system of place-based STEM Guides—people skilled in education and/or youth development who live in rural areas (STEM Hubs) which vary in size from entire counties to single regional school districts
The activities that we provided through Farmers Markets and a community fair seemed in many ways a rural analog of exhibits at science centers
Summary
The work described in this paper, Farmers Market Math, took place in Maine, the most rural state in the U.S It was part of a larger project, the STEM Guides Project, which brings science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] to 10- to 18-year-old youth and their families in out-of-school settings.Rural students are, by most definitions, geographically isolated and live in communities consisting of fewer than 2,500 people (Coladarci, 2007). INTRODUCTION The work described in this paper, Farmers Market Math, took place in Maine, the most rural state in the U.S It was part of a larger project, the STEM Guides Project, which brings science, technology, engineering and math [STEM] to 10- to 18-year-old youth and their families in out-of-school settings. We made mathematics more visible, connected and exciting by bringing it to some of Maine’s Farmers Markets and agricultural fairs and engaging youth and their families in math at these popular community venues.
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