Index of University Press Releases

Aug. 16, 2007

Catalano attends Mathematics of Social Justice Workshop

Mike Catalano

MITCHELL – DWU mathematics professor Mike Catalano attended the second Mathematics of Social Justice Workshop at Middlebury College in Vermont, June 20-23.

"I was interested in this conference because of the focus on social issues, including hunger, energy, and the environment, that I am incorporating into my college algebra textbook," said Catalano.

Workshop participants formed teams to develop modules to be used by mathematics instructors to incorporate social justice themes into their classes. Work on the modules is ongoing.

"Members of our group were interested in issues related to energy and the environment,” Catalano said. “We decided introducing students to the mathematics of the Gini Coefficient would provide a good mathematical learning experience, as well as exposing them to issues related to inequality of resource distribution, particularly energy."

Catalano's attendance at the workshop was funded by a National Science Foundation Grant. This grant is also funding Catalano's work on an innovative text for college algebra, and has provided the college with a mobile laptop computer lab that is being used both for college algebra and statistics classes.

For more information on Catalano and the math department at DWU, visit www.dwu.edu/math.