| Drum for Math unClass |
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Drum for Math is an innovative unClass to start in Cary, NC in November. Greg Whitt of Drum for Change and Maria Droujkova of Natural Math designed this unique experience for their communities and friends. It will help teens and tweens, and their adults, to appreciate and to create mathematics in its natural, musical context.
The drumming part will help develop rhythms, coordination, musical understanding, and of course the overall feeling of well-being and togetherness. The mathematics part will be devoted to topics from algebra (finite groups, patterns and functions), number theory (modulo arithmetic, primes), and calculus (sequences and series). We will also use technology and social media to reach deeper understanding, to share our experiences with the world, and to help members hone their 21st century skills.
Do not be intimidated by the names of the math topics, or the lack of your rhythm abilities! Maria and Greg are confident that anyone who can count and who understand the basic operations will be able to work at this level. Maria has spent fifteen years researching and developing ways of making advanced mathematics accessible to everyone, including young kids, math-phobics, and special needs people. Greg has facilitated hundreds of drum circles and events, and his talents for bringing everybody into the action are phenomenal.
Here are the details about the unclass:
What: Drum for Math drumming circle unclass Where: North Cary When: Wednesdays 4-6 pm, starting November 4th. The first session is 5 weeks. Who: Teens and older tweens* Cost: $12/hour, for the total of $120 Contact and registration: Maria Droujkova 919-388-1721 or maria at naturalmath dot com Community sites: http://www.drumforchange.com and http://www.naturalmath.com/
*Adult family members of registered children can attend for free. Drum circles are great for strengthening family ties.
Message from Greg: Drumming has been used for centuries in nearly all cultures for ritual, healing, and celebration. This universal nature of percussive music provides opportunities for creative self-expression and for group participation. Group drumming participants are connected to a common purpose by sharing rhythm experiences with others. From a health perspective, group drumming promotes many elements of wellness including exercise, nurturing and social support, intellectual stimulation, spirituality, self-expression, and stress reduction. From an educational viewpoint, drumming can be used as the vehicle for world exploration in social studies, geography, math, art, and language arts by integrating listening skills to hear music, hands-on music-making activities to develop motor skills and creativity, and exposure to promote awareness of cultural diversity.
 Message from Maria: Mathematics has been used for centuries to torture little kids. Its incredible beauty and power was locked in ivory towers accessible to the select few. The rest of us were confined to the role of rote calculation slaves never allowed to create and dream mathematically. The current state of affairs, where less than five percent of adults can deal with algebra conceptually, leads to the inability of the population as a whole to solve the global problems of the world. At the level of families, we also experience little math tragedies, such as tears over workbooks, or decisions to abandon career choices that require mathematics. People who, despite all this, happen to know and love math have it tough socially, because of the general lack of resources and interest in the subject.
I strongly believe that the way to address these global problems is to work locally. We can and we do bring meaningful, beautiful, fun math-rich activities into small circles of families and friends. What I see in Math Clubs and unClasses gives me hope that the world just might be fine. Two five-year-old girls giggling over a game they programmed together. A nine-year-old rushing to tell other club members about a new origami pattern. A teen presenting his week-long exploration on the number of unique art pieces the group's combined block print plates can make. And now - a drumming circle! |
