Thank you for sharing your work!  I really appreciate the grounding of this project in the funds of knowledge of the rural communities and the aim to understand the problem solving practices that are present. I am curious to hear more about any intentions/plans to share YOUR model with others interested in doing similar work in other areas.  In other words, do you have any plans to disseminate what you did/how you went about this work so that others who may want to do the same could do so in their region?  How can it live/grow beyond the summer camp experiences in Montana?  Also, what might it take to develop project leaders/facilitators for this kind of work?  Curious to hear more.   

Thanks for sharing your exciting modeling project drawing on community funds of knowledge (and great to "see" you via video). Have community members and/or local secondary teachers also been involved in leading parts of the summer camps? Have you been able to share parts of the modeling project with local preservice or inservice teachers to help expand the impact? What are some of your favorite project topics students have brought to the summer camps from their local communities?

Hi, Wendy! These are such great questions. I'll take them one at a time. 

Regarding local community members and secondary teachers - Yes! Youth come to camp in teams, and they come with a community mentor. In our first iteration of camp, our mentors included parents, grandparents, 4-H leaders, and middle/HS math and science teachers. They worked alongside the youth throughout camp, so they were in a mentor/participant role. 

Local Preservice Teachers - We are getting there! Here at Montana State, we have a Modeling for Teachers course that is our capstone, so there is some synergy between what we do at camp and what we do with teachers. For example, we developed a task that simulates the way a disease is spread (before Covid, if you can believe it!) through a combination of the chicken dance and playing rock-paper-scissors. We did versions of that class in both our modeling course and in a math for elementary teachers course. We've also shared it at our state conference and at NCTM in Indianapolis. 

Favorite Projects - We had a couple of teams investigate issues related to traffic and road safety. This was a surprise to me initially, but in rural communities "main street" is often a highway. A mostly middle school group investigated a dangerous crosswalk - so dangerous that no one used it, in fact. They collected observational and survey data and proposed new locations for the crosswalk based on where people actually cross the street (https://youtu.be/sjonwp0srzI). We also have some exciting projects brewing for this year, including ones focused on language preservation/revitalization in American Indian communities and the sustainability of wolf populations in Yellowstone National Park...so stay tuned! 

I love your initial questions and the university-community partnerships. I would like to know more about your summer camps. Do you have data of how your summer attendees do when they go back to school in the fall? And does this also help with recruitment to MSU?

Such an inspiring project. Field experiences definitely impact prospective preservice teachers. Students' perceptions towards mathematics seem to be shaped by how they define mathematics and the role of mathematics in their life. Summer attendees will gain a wealth of experience. 

Thank you so much for your encouraging words. We are all learning so much…PIs, mentors, preservice teachers, and youth alike! 

Such a great project! I'd love to know a bit about how you go about building trust in small rural communities and establishing local relationships to move this work forward.