On Thursday, November 13, the STEM Education Center, partnering with numerous organizations at and around WPI (including AWM!), hosted a free community screening and conversation of Counted Out, a powerful documentary that interrogates the way math is taught in schools and explores how math shapes everything from economic opportunity to democracy.
From the Counted Out website:
Counted Out investigates the biggest crises of our time through an unexpected lens: math.
In our current information economy, math is everywhere. The people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get—all of it is underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice.
But whether we know it or not, our numeric literacy—whether we can speak the language of math—is a critical determinant of social and economic power.
Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, Counted Out shows what’s at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don’t consider ourselves “math people”? Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society—and can help shape it?
The event was open to all community members, with K-14 educators especially encouraged to attend.
Find out about other screenings of the documentary here and learn about hosting your own screening here.
