Using Labor Market Information (LMI) to Teach Math Concepts with Brooke Istas

September is Workforce Development Month and we are excited to have Brooke Istas from the LINCS math and numeracy group join this week to close out the month with a discussion around using labor market information to teach math concepts. 

Brooke is currently in her final year as a PhD student at Southern Methodist University and her dissertation will focus on adult basic education math instructors capturing their mathematical learning perceptions and experiences. She has worked in Adult Basic Education since 2005 as an instructor and math and numeracy educator at community college and university level and she has been a LINCS moderator since 2010. 

We are excited to have her share some ideas on teaching graphs, charts, and statistics using labor market data. We also encourage LINCS members to share some of their own ideas and resources. 

Comments

Hello, Career Pathways,

For the past five years, I have been working on a project that required us to contextualize mathematics to different career fields. We did this because students often believe that school mathematics isn’t relevant to their career pathway or everyday life. I remember interviewing a student who told me she wanted to deliver babies when she graduated. But, when asked if any math topics were not necessary for her to learn, she told me “Geometry.”  She said, “I don’t see why anyone needs to know about circles or other shapes.”  I did not react to her statement, but it got me thinking about how many students do not understand the connection between the mathematics they learn and the mathematics they use (or will use). This project was relatively large, and I will discuss it over the next few days. One suggestion is to help students find the context for the content they are learning; as part of our research, we created a website, “The Stories of Algebra.” This link will take you to video stories; if you scroll down, you will see it broken down by topic. Watch one and let me know what you think.

Have any of your students mentioned that the math they are learning does not connect to real life or their career? What was the topic? What was their career choice?

Brooke Istas

I thought the shopping video was a good starting point for learners to realize algebra in their every day life. As for using math in our personal and work lives, I was one of those students that never thought I would use much Geometry and thought it was more for people in construction industry. Overtime, I was amazed at all the different ways geometry is used in different industries and occupations. 

Hi Brooke and Everyone,

  What a fantastic resource! I try each class to relate Math to an occupation, but usually say something lame like " This process is heavily used in Engineering!" Which provokes stifled yawns. I really appreciate the variety of occupations I can now show these brief videos to enhance relevance in our math classes!

  Many thanks,

  Carol N, ABE Instructor 

 

 

Carol, 

I think many of us when teaching try to mention the first or most common occupation that comes to mind. I agree these resources allow us to really become more student-centered in our practices and clearly show students how the specific math concept might apply to their specific career interests. 

Hello all,

Today, I would like to point you to another resource, "Data Big Ideas."  This website is part of Stanford professor, Dr. Boaler's YouCubed.  This link focuses on 4 big ideas about data and had lessons attached to them that translate well into adult education. One of my favorite activities that involve data, is connecting different representations to the same data set. For example, take a bar chart of data, print it off big enough so you can cut out all the bars, then tape the bars together, end to end, so that they make a straight line. Then, connect the top with the bottom, to create a circle.  Then lay the circle on a piece of paper and trace it, marking where each bar was taped together.  Find the center of the circle, make a dot.  Then draw lines connecting the center to the marks you made for the different bars.  Now you should have a circle graph.  This change from a bar graph to a piece chart is very interesting to adult learners and it connects how the bars turn into percentages.  We also discuss advantages of bar graphs and circle(pie) charts.  

Additionally, we talk about difference between mean, median and mode.  I first learned about this lesson as a participant in the Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN) many years ago.  Learners are asked to organize themselves in a straight line from tallest to shortest without talking.  Once they are done, we take masking tape and make a line from Tallest to Shortest, sticking it to the floor.  Then we ask for them to identify the middle (the median).  They are allowed to talk during this time and usually identify the median rather quickly.  Another piece of tape is place to make the middle.  Then, instructors ask what would be the middle of the half to the left of center? What would be the middle of the half right of center?  Those areas are marked off, too.  Instructors then discuss that those would be the 1st and 3rd Quartile.  There is a bit more that can be done with this activity and perhaps we can talk about it in a follow-up webinar that we will be having with this group in a couple of months.

What are other activities you have tried?  I hope you will participate and talk with me.

Brooke

Brooke has shared some great hands-on activities and I hope you are able to try one of them and share how it went. 

Understanding the difference between mean and median is very important when learners explore careers and the salary that goes with each career. Some websites use median and others use mean and those numbers can be very different. The career trajectory dashboard can also be a great tool to explore 'average" or "mean" wage growth over time. The dashboard uses labor market data to show the average wage growth occupations have seen over 3, 5, and 10 year periods. 

Hi Everyone,

  I can't wait to try the Bar Graph to Pie Chart Activity! Amazing!

  One of my favorite Math Lessons with an Activity is called The Art of Converting Fractions to Decimals to Percents: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K2_cKPavU60pOA15Q96gTQ5wZEc0HwHfDGa7aYvBvFw/edit?usp=drivesdk

  Students get some Art exposure and the chance to create their own pixel style art work. Then they complete a chart with the conversion of Fractions, Decimals, and Percents. 

  I also try to incorporate music as students arrive and at our break, as studies show music stimulates the brain for learning. And I also talk about metacognition every class. 

Hello, all,

When I teach data, I ask the learners to consider the story the data is telling and be sure to look at who is telling the story.  Often students look at the data and look for an answer. By asking them to consider "the story," they slow down and reflect.  Many years ago, I had some data about smoking that told the story that it appears it wasn't dangerous to one's health.  We talked about how the data may be correct, but how it is categorized/sorted can make a difference.  I love to do an activity about data in class with sticky notes as my votes, and I ask students to pick their favorite pizza topping. Tallied votes are then categorized and arranged into a bar chart. We discuss the ways to categorize them. Usually, we have 4 or 5 categories. We make statements like "3 times as many people like pepperoni compared to cheese," then I asked them if the statement "It looks like 1/3 of the people who like cheese compared to pepperoni." I am trying to push against their mental math and get them to think about fractions, decimals, and percentages. Then I change the categories to just two, Pepperoni and Non-Pepperoni.  I then ask them to tell me how the story changed. I want them to see that the same data can tell a different story, and we need to be critical thinkers about data.

What types of lessons do you use data for, have you considered asking about the "story"?

Brooke