WE BELONG

THE CONCEPT OF BELONGING AT CHAMINADE

The students at Chaminade College School were given the chance to express themselves and their diversity in a unique way, through mathematics!  In a grade 12 advanced functions class, students were to create presentations based on the presence of mathematics in their cultures; this included a description of a prominent mathematician/scientist, an explanation of a significant discovery/theorem/axiom, and an artistic rendition of a symbol composed of mathematical functions, all relating to each student’s respective culture.  This connected with the curriculum as the creation of the cultural symbol allowed the students to practice using graphing software and explore the properties and transformations of functions while the other two components gave the students the opportunity to go above and beyond and learn about the history and advancements of mathematics.

The project gave the students the opportunity to learn about much more than mathematics as it is more effectively described as an expression of culture and diversity.  The students researched and learned about their own culture and then presented their findings to the class in order to educate their peers. The students found the project interesting and rewarding as it allowed them to learn about the varying cultures of their classmates, something that is not regularly brought up in classrooms.  They discovered many similarities throughout their differing cultures, with perhaps the most prominent similarity being the importance of faith, which aided in facilitating inclusion and giving each student a sense of belonging.

The project was designed and implemented by the head of the mathematics department at Chaminade, Mrs. Georgescu.  She decided to create a project centered around the cultures of her students so that they would be more enthusiastic and motivated with regards to their mathematics education and understand that it is much greater than what it covered in the high school curriculum.  As this was her first time assigning the project and it was a great success, she plans to continue involving students’ cultures in their learning and is encouraging the other department heads to do the same. Although a lack of cultural representation is not an issue at Chaminade, projects such as this one do help to foster a common sense of belonging and strengthen the brotherhood that Chaminade has been a proud home to for over 50 years.