NEW EVENT SERIES DEBUTS IN MARCH

Math and science are all around if only you know where to look. 

That’s the premise behind a new series of monthly walks focused on encouraging students ages 5-14 to uncover math and science concepts in their everyday surroundings. 

Debuting in March, walkSTEM will use area teachers to guide students and their families on learning-infused walks through the Dallas Arts District. The series was inspired by a similar program at the National Museum of Mathematics in New York spearheaded by the museum’s founder and director, Glen Whitney.

“I think at the root, we have a cultural problem with mathematics in this country because it’s seen as disconnected. It’s dismissed as unimportant, irrelevant, scary, too difficult to bother with. And that’s setting us back,” Whitney told KERA recently. “We don’t have enough people who get excited about the field, who go into it, and help us develop the new ideas and techniques we’re going to need to push our technology forward.”

The Dallas series is being organized by talkSTEM, a nonprofit focused on sparking conversation about the diversity of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics thinking in the community. 

“What we and our partners in doing walkSTEM want to accomplish is to show how mathematics actually threads through all the things we see around us in everyday life.” 

Glen Whitney

The nonprofit plans to train 70 local teachers this winter to lead the walks, according to its website. There will be two different levels in the program: one for elementary and one for middle school-aged kids.

The walkSTEM program will be held on the first Saturday of each month. The nonprofit hopes to reach 1,200 walkers during its first year, according to its website. 

“People see mathematics as something that is abstract … that only happens during math class and isn’t connected to the rest of the world. And so, what we and our partners in doing walkSTEM want to accomplish is to show how mathematics actually threads through all the things we see around us in everyday life,” Whitney told KERA. 

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