Hanna Horvat

Professor Connie Christensen 

EDU 280 - 3001
30 July 2021
Artifact #2 Multicultural Lesson Activity
Subject / Grade Level:
10th grade Math (Algebra II)
Multicultural Activity:
My lesson will begin with going over the key parts of the Unit Circle which will be able
to be related to key multicultural mathematicians from the past. My students will then learn
about various multicultural mathematicians from the past and how the ideas and concepts of
math they are given credit for coming up with relate to what the unit circle entails of.

Here is an example of a fully filled out Unit Circle.

1. Lesson Objective:
Write an observable objective using Bloom explaining what subject skills, information the
students are learning:
Students will be able to identify (Knowledge) key parts of the unit circle that
mathematicians have discovered in order to better understand how the makeup of the unit circle
includes many different key parts that several different mathematicians have discovered.
Students will also be able to rewrite (Synthesis) their own unit circle from a blank piece
of paper and add the names of key mathematicians that have discovered certain key pieces to be
able to construct the unit circle.
Students will be able to discover new concepts (Knowledge) some major multicultural
mathematicians came up with and will be able to be more knowledgeable of important
mathematicians that are not limited to only a few main mathematicians.
By learning about famous mathematicians of different cultures, students will be able to
contrast (Evaluation) their previous knowledge of mathematicians to their new understanding of
how diverse the world of mathematicians is.
With their individual practice of rewriting the terms on the Unit Circle themselves,
students will be able to better develop their memorization of the terms on the Unit Circle
(Knowledge).
The Unit Circle is continually used for later math classes and it is essential that they
know how to use it and apply it to future math course materials (Application).
Select one multicultural goal from the Manning Chapter 1 Study Guide that identifies the
multicultural skills, concepts the students are practicing in the activity:
I selected goal four from the Manning Chapter 1 Study Guide which is to “Promote
positive gender, racial, cultural, class and individual identities”. Students will be able to see these
mathematicians of different cultures and have a positive connection if they have the same culture
of some of the mentioned mathematicians, but also have a positive attitude towards the cultures
of these mathematicians even if they have a different culture from their own. 
I hope that my students will see that not all of these mathematicians are all of the same
culture, and that they will be able to see themselves in major people in history and see that
diversity can produce new and important things. By my students seeing that people from
different cultures made changes in the world of mathematics, it may bring about some inspiration
or motivation in them to want to make new changes and they will be given new confidence from
seeing people like them who have changed the world in their own ways. It can also help broaden
a student’s idea of successful people and their idea of who is successful and can change the
world, and change it into an even more positive outlook seeing that it can be anyone of any
culture.

2. Materials:
 PowerPoint for the lecture part of the class with information about the key
mathematicians that will be mentioned. file:///C:/Users/hmhor/Documents/EDU
%20280/Multicultural%20Lesson%20Activity%20PowerPoint%20PDF.pdf
 Worksheet of Unit Circle that is to be filled out (below) with key information and
the names of mathematicians that developed the specific key parts of the Unit
Circle. For example, someone would add René Descartes’ name with an arrow
pointing to one of the quadrants of the circle.

 A video helping the students to remember where to start with the values of cosine
and sine in the (x,y) form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao4EJzNWmK8
3. Instruction – Learning Process: Create a detailed outline of the
multicultural activity:
Do First:
I would start the lesson by having my students list some mathematicians they might have
heard of before like Archimedes, Pythagoras, Isaac Newton and more. I would try to determine
what cultural group most of the mathematicians listed were from, and with this I will know that
my students’ knowledge on multicultural mathematicians will become much more diverse than
their knowledge before.

Mini Lesson:
For the mini-lesson I would be going over all of the parts of the unit circle and how to
start on drawing all of the important sections, like adding the radians and degrees, the sine and
cosine labels etc. and then making sure they understand the concept of why the radian or degree
correlates with the xy-coordinate: (cosine, sine). Being able to understand the Unit Circle is
important for future math classes.

Guided Practice:
My guided practice would be presenting a PowerPoint lecture with a few different
mathematicians I want to highlight. I would give brief explanations of who they were and what
they accomplished, still mainly relating to how what they did is incorporated into the making of
the unit circle. For example, learning about Mesopotamians and how they were the ones that
came up with the idea that a circle has 360 degrees will help my students have a deeper
knowledge of the cultures from which different ideas came from and how all of those ideas can
be assembled into the making of the Unit Circle

Independent Practice:
For the independent practice I would have my students replicate a unit circle that they
have memorized by adding the needed information in the blank spaces. They would also, more
importantly, add small labels of the names of famous mathematicians that discovered certain
parts that make up the unit circle to test their knowledge on the famous mathematicians they
learned about and what they discovered.

Exit Slip:
For the exit slip I would have my students turn in their unit circles at the end of the class
or go over the answers by drawing my own unit circle on the board and asking which parts were
discovered by which mathematicians by having them participate.
 References

“11 Famous African American Mathematicians”. MashupMath. February 16, 2021.

https://www.mashupmath.com/blog/famous-african-american-mathematicians

Bloom’s Taxonomy Action Verbs.

http://www.fresnostate.edu/academics/oie/documents/assesments/Blooms%20Level.pdf

New Manning STUDY GUIDES CHAPTER 1-8

Newitz, A. “The Babylonians discovered a strange form of trigonometry”. arsTECNNICA.

August 25, 2017. https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/08/ancient-tablet-reveals-
babylonians-discovered-trigonometry/

Muscato, C. “Native American Mathematics: History & Mathematics”. Study.com.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/native-american-mathematics-history-
mathematicians.html

O’Connor, JJ & Robertson, E F. “Madhava of Sangamagramma”. MacTutor. November 2000.

https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Madhava/
Reflection:
Evaluate your multicultural lesson activity. What specific subject concepts, skills were
taught?
All the information needed to create a Unit Circle was taught, but also information about
diverse mathematicians from the past were taught.

What specific multicultural knowledge, skills were achieved?

The multicultural knowledge skills achieved were the ability to better understand that the
world of math, but also the world around everyone is much more diverse than things like history
tell us. By learning about the diverse world that we live in, and discovering some important
people from different cultures that have made an impact on the world, we can understand each
other better to make sure everyone is treated with respect and that their values, ideals and
abilities are accepted and appreciated, no matter their culture.

Evaluate the level of student engagement in the teaching-learning process.

In the warmup and the exit slip there are chances for the students to be engaged in the
discussion. With the lesson and lecturing there is teaching going on while the students are
learning but not as much conversation to be held. The independent practice is a great way for
individuals to engage in their work while taking a break from the being taught and learning, but
rather recalling the information.

Lastly, list the strengths and weaknesses of the multicultural activity.

Some of the strengths are that my students after this activity will be able to better grasp
the concepts that make up the Unit Circle, and they will be able to identify mathematicians from
different cultures. By learning about mathematicians from different cultures they will be more
culturally diverse and have more understanding that math is made up of concepts from many
different cultures, not just one specific cultural group. I also think that the mix of different
changes from each group of activities helps incorporate all learning styles, and that is definitely a
strength.
I would say my weaknesses include not having as much student participation, group-
wise, other than with the beginning question & response activity and the exit slip. Another
weakness is not having an activity for my students to go home and learn more about
multicultural elements in math outside of the classroom, unless the topic of the lesson comes up
at home.