Social Justice

I found this article to be very helpful as we are working on our problem based learning assignments.

I suppose that I never really thought about teaching social justice from the math perspective, but as I read the article, I realized that we can use the math approach for our project. We are doing "lead paint", I was a bit worried how we could incorporate multi-disciplines for our project, but I now realize that it may be easier than I had previously thought to incorporate different subject matters.

I have heard (in a currins 100 course) that problem based learning and problem solving skills are emphasized in suburban districts rather than urban school districts. However, most of the classes that we read about are urban based districts that choose to incorporate problem based learning (social justice, service learning, etc). It seems that children in urban districts, or students whom are in trouble really benefit from such teaching.
Perhaps it is because the students are put in control of their own education. Perhaps it's doing something positive to change the world. Perhaps it's the sense of accomplishment when the project is finished. Whichever it is, it seems like a positive way to connect students to the world around them, and make an impact on their own lives, as well as those around them.