A workshop on Making Sense of Word Problems by Brian Greer.

The workshop will begin with a discussion of why word problems often inspire dread in students. It will then examine a number of “problematic” word problems that have been used in experiments worldwide. This will be followed by an analysis of different types of word problem and discussion of what their purposes are. The workshop will end with some speculation on how solving word problems helps to frame how people think about the mathematical modeling of real-world situations.

A talk on Ethnomatematics by Swapna Mukhopadhyay.

“Ethnomathematics”, introduced as a concept by Ubiratan D’Ambrosio in 1984, refers to the mathematics of cultural groups. It provides a counter to the Eurocentric narrative of the development of academic mathematics. Beyond that, Ethnomathemics identifies human practices other than academic mathematics that can be termed mathematical. Examples from around the world will be presented, including the speaker's own studies of the “vernacular engineering” of boat-builders on the Bay of Bengal. Ethnomathematics valorizes the inteellectual activity and sense of identity of people who
are excluded and alienated by school mathematics.

https://tiss.ac.in/uploads/files/SB_Poster_v5_22.01.19.pdf