This past February at the 2010 San Diego USDoE MSP conference we had the privilege to hear from NSF’s Jan Cuny as she introduced to us a great resource called “National Lab Day“. As Jan said, National Lab Day is neither a specific day nor solely focused on labs. As their website states:
National Lab Day is more than just a day. It’s a nationwide initiative to build local communities of support that will foster ongoing collaborations among volunteers, students and educators.Â
Volunteers, university students, scientists, engineers, other STEM professionals and, more broadly, members of the community are working together with educators and students to bring discovery-based science experiences to students in grades K-12. When an educator posts a project, our system will help them get the resources needed to bring that project to fruition. Â
We recently had the pleasure to meet RPI’s Ron Eglash as he introduced us to his NSF sponsored work on Culturally Situated Design Tools. As stated in the June 2006 issue of American Anthropologist (pdf),
Ethnomathematics is the study of mathematical ideas and practices situated in their cultural context. Culturally Situated Design Tools (CSDTs) are web-based software applications that allow students to create simulations of cultural arts—Native American beadwork, African American cornrow hairstyles, urban graffiti, and so forth—using these underlying mathematical principles.
We were thrilled to discover the important work that Ron is doing right in our own backyard.
