The Children's Museum of Houston seeks to develop a 1,500 sq ft bilingual traveling exhibition based on their bilingual "Magnificent Math Moments" activities. This project simultaneously addresses two very important needs: the relative lack of mathematics exhibits for young children and for Spanish-speaking audiences. The exhibition is based on Patron (Pattern) Point where the visitor meets math superheroes, Subtracta, Capt. Mas in the settings of Subtracta's Puzzle Parlor; Capt. Mas's Marina; and Formas (Shapes) Family Shipping Yard. It will provide an inviting setting for introducing the target audiences to mathematics through the use of characters, environments and puzzles. BROADER IMPACT: Fabrication of a second version of the traveling exhibition will extend the number of institutions reached through two national tours. These exhibitions, which target children ages 5-10 and adults, are projected to reach some 1.4 million visitors in 24 museums over five years; sites will be selected to reach Hispanic audiences in smaller, low-income urban and rural areas. For further impact CMH is forming another network of museums that will benefit from this project, even though the institutions will not be able to host the traveling exhibition. CMH also is developing ancillary materials and services to accompany the exhibition that include activity kits and cart, character costumes, training guides, parent materials and other resources.
The goal of this Planning Grant is to create and pilot embedded mathematics activities in an effort to increase numeracy skills of adults in community advocacy groups. The project is designed to explore the manner in which adults address mathematics issues related to community problems, design interventions that will assist with the understanding and interpretation of data, the use of mathematics and experiment with focused activities to explicate mathematical ideas. Three proof of concept intervention activities will be pilot tested with members of urban and rural community action groups in Boston, Massachusetts, and in a rural Appalachian town in Tennessee. The project partners include the Center for Literacy Studies, Boston Asthma Coalition, Haitian American Public Health Initiative and the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense Fund. Project deliverables include a needs assessment and the design and evaluation of mathematics interventions to ascertain the impact on adults' use and confidence. Strategic impact will be realized by exploring community groups as an informal education setting for introducing contextualized STEM content.