Project Team
Anton Mosunov, Mathematics
Gavin Orok, Founder of MathSoc Cartoons
Marcus Chan (Writer)
Clara Xi (Artist)
Ava Pun (Writer & Artist)
Isabella Scott (Digital Artist)
Grace Feng (Writer)
Project Summary
This project will investigate the use of artistic story books in correcting common misconceptions that undergraduate students have about math education. The use of illustration in math has been previously explored and well-received by students in previous projects involving cartoons; we want to expand on this style of resource that has proven engaging to UW students, but adapt it to a storybook style instead to accommodate longer and more-developed stories. Misconceptions that we will attempt to address include: math is only done by men, math has few real-world applications, and math is done in isolation. These misconceptions can be harmful to students’ education by reducing their engagement with the subject and discouraging them from taking math courses. By showing students real-world stories about mathematics we will attempt to highlight the diversity inherent to the field and correct disengagement caused by misunderstandings.
References
[1] R. D. Ferguson, Abstraction Anxiety: a Factor of Mathematics Anxiety, Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 17 (2), pp. 145–150, 1986.
[2] M. C. Murphy, C. M. Steele, J. J. Gross, Signaling Threat: How Situational Cues Affect Women in Math, Science, and Engineering Settings, Psychological Science 18 (10), pp. 879–885, 2007.
[3] B. Orlin, Math with Bad Drawings: Illuminating the Ideas That Shape Our Reality, Black Dog & Levental, 2018.
[4] S. Padua, Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: a (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer, Pantheon Books, 2015.
[5] S. Takahashi, The Manga Guide to Statistics, No Starch Press, 2008.
[6] J. L. Tassell, J. Lynne, E. Novak, B. Kessler, Math Comic Books to the Rescue: Can Wonderguy's Escapades Improve Children's Mathematics Attitudes?, Technology, Instruction, Cognition and Learning 11 (4), pp. 259–286, 2019.