The Navajo Nation Math Circles project aims to develop problem solving skills and deepen understanding and enjoyment of mathematics among Navajo students and teachers. It has three main components: math circles at schools, teacher workshops, and a summer camp. Visiting math leaders run sessions at schools and provide support materials. The two week summer camp includes cultural activities and math problems. The goal is to make math engaging and relevant to Navajo students through community involvement and connection to their culture.

1. Navajo Nation Math Circles

2. Navajo Nation Math Circles (NNMC) project is
about two years old.
Its goal is to develop and support the practice of
problem solving and to deepen the
understanding and enjoinment of
mathematics among Navajo school children
and their teachers.

3. Three components of the project:
• Math Circles at various schools
• Workshops for teachers
• Summer camp

5. By necessity, a Navajo Nation math circle has
peculiar features:
• Run at a school for the school’s students
• Between the end of classes and the departure
of activities buses
• Led by school teachers – and
THEY NEED SUPPORT

6. Three forms of support:
• Scripts for math circle sessions
• Visits by experienced math circle
leaders
• Teachers Workshops

7. Two parts of a script:
• A student handout consisting of a good set of
problems (which shouldn't be too short or too
long)
• Notes for the teacher with
(a) solutions for all problems,
(b) discussion of mathematics which
motivated the choice of problems,
(c) practical advice on how to run this
particular session.

8. • Fall 2012 – Tatiana Shubin
• April 2013 – Amanda Serenevy
• December 2013 – Blake Thornton
Visits:

9. Fall 2012
• St Michael HS, St Michaels
• Chinle HS, Chinle
• St Michael MS, St Michaels
• Tsehootsoi MS, Ft Defiance
• Many Farms HS, Many Farms

12. St Michael HS Math Circle

13. St Michael MS Math Circle

14. Middle School Sessions
• 1. Splitting and Sharing
• 2. Parity and Invariants
• 3. Tiling and Coloring
• 4. Triangles, Squares, Pyramids, and Cubes
• 5. Fractions (Mediants, Farey Sequences)
• 6. Beans, Piles, and Other Games
• 7. The Game of SET
• 8. The Game of SET and Finite Geometries
• 9. Exploding Dots
• 10. 36 Officers Problem
• 11. AMC-8, 2011

15. High School Sessions
Eight sessions with the same topics as sessions 1-8
for middle schools.
• 9. Counting Squares (Pythagorean Thm; Area;
Numbers expressible as the sum of two
squares)
• 10. Invariants and Modular Arithmetic
• 11. Wilson's Thm; some algebra (factoring and
using it in mental arithmetic)
• 12. Chromatic Numbers

16. Diné College, Tsaile

18. Spring 2013
Amanda Serenevy’s visit
• Ganado HS
• Many Farms HS
• St Michael HS

20. Fall 2013
Blake Thornton’s visit
• Thoreau MS, NM
• Rough Rock HS
• Round Rock HS
• St Michael HS

22. Teachers Workshops (all hosted by Henry Fowler
and Diné College)
• December 1, 2012 (Tatiana Shubin)
• April 20, 2013 (Amanda Serenevy)
• July 20, 2013 (David Auckly, Amanda
Serenevy, Tatiana Shubin)
• December 7, 2013 (Maggie Cummings,
Blake Thornton)

23. Henry Fowler and Amanda Serenevy leading a
session

25. Summer Math Camp
Two- week nonresidential camp for
middle and high school students
July 15-26, 2013,
Diné College, Tsaile, AZ

26. Typical day schedule:
• 7:00 am – pick-up time (two locations, Many
Farms and Ft Defiance, both 1 hour drive)
• 8:00-10:00 – breakfast, cultural and math
activities
• 10-11:30 – math session
• 11:30-2:00 – lunch, cultural lessons and/or physical
activities
• 2:00-3:30 – math session
• 4:00 – buses departure

27. Playing SET

28. Building with Zome tools

29. A math session

30. Another math session

31. Learning names of shapes in Navajo

32. Cooking lunch in self-made solar ovens

33. At lunch

34. Friday specials:
• Morning: Math Wrangle
• Afternoon: Guest Speaker

35. Guest speakers:
• Robert Megginson,
Professor of Mathematics
and Associate Dean for
Undergraduate and
Graduate Education,
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor; one of only about 12
Native Americans who hold
a PhD in mathematics.
• Commander John
Herrington, the first tribally-
enrolled Native American
Indian Astronaut to fly in
outer space. He docked the
space shuttle to
the International Space
Station and became the first
American Indian to walk in
space during the space
mission.

36. Guest speaker John Herrington

37. Guest speaker Bob Megginson with students
and instructors

38. Support is provided by:
• MAA Tensor-SUMMA
• EAF
• AIM
• MSRI
• NSF
• Desjardins Blachman Foundation

39. Contact information
• Tatiana Shubin tatiana.shubin@sjsu.edu
• David Auckly dav@math.ksu.edu
• Henry Fowler henry_hf@hotmail.com
• Robert Klein kleinr@ohio.edu