GUELPH – Grade 6 students from St. John Catholic Elementary School in Guelph participated in Wellington Catholic District School Board’s (WCDSB) first Métis Math Collaboration.
Through the Métis Math Collaboration, Métis Knowledge Keepers Jennifer Parkinson, Leslie Muma and Alicia Hamilton lead students to explore curriculum concepts while creating a beaded bracelet from an original floral pattern designed by Muma.
Students use mathematic skills to work through the pattern, plot their bracelet, determine the amount of beads needed and bead on the loom – an Anishinaabe technique.
“The goal of the Métis Math Collaboration in Wellington is to expand this opportunity into other classes and grades in a meaningful way to ensure that the relationships and community remain the heart of the project,” shared WCDSB First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education resource teacher Cathy Doucette.
Students explored different math concepts and made their own bracelets using Muma’s floral pattern.
The possible math connections are endless: spatial reasoning; patterning and algebraic reasoning; and two-dimensional transformations.
“My favorite part of the week was when we got to start the beading was all the coloring and the math,” shared Grade 6 student Einstein Sijo.
An equally important part is anchoring the math in Métis history and culture; facilitated by Parkinson, Muma and Hamilton.
“We teach kids that it’s community, right, every bead joins at the end and it continues and it becomes part of who they are. That’s why they got to pick their own colors. They use my pattern but their own colors so that it’s special to them,” shared Muma.
In the new year, Parkinson, Muma and Hamilton will return and students will have the opportunity to continue to build a sense of community and relationships with Métis Knowledge Keepers through designing their own bracelet incorporating math.
