Entrance slip for our October 1 class: Mathematics education for sustainability

          After reading this article, I start to reflect on what is included in the curriculum for high schools. It is true that environmental science like climate change seldom mentioned in the textbook. It is obvious that the disconnection between the mathematical classroom and the real world. I feel surprised and stopped at the metaphor part that using bags of garbage for the CO2 we produce when we are driving. This powerful comparison resonated me because it compares "one type of pollution with another, one pound of carbon with one pound of trash The image of freeways piled up with garbage arouses a physical sense of disgust and is likely to open up an opportunity for a critical discussion of carbon pollution among students"(P23) I also stopped at the part emotion that emotion needs to be in science and math just like Dr. Kimmerer said at the Seminar. It is true that "if we do not feel numbers, then our emotional access to the physical phenomena they represent is much diminished"(p24) The author uses the Large Number and Chaos theory to argue the educational response to education sustainability. As a math teacher, we can give word problems or data analysis based on environmental issues like water pollution, ice melting, sea level rising, and reflect on these issues.