13th

I just finished watching the documentary 13th and am trying to take what I learned back to my students. I quickly made an Average Rate of Change example to spark conversation with my students about the exploding prison population in the US over the past decade. I'm posting it here (word doc from Google Drive download)  for others who might want to incorporate socially conscious math in their classrooms.

This is my draft of what will work for my students. If you have modifications, extensions or accommodations to add, please feel free to - and please let me know about it !



Text for editing:

REALWORLD APPLICATION

The documentary “13^th” discusses the aftermath of the 13^th amendment, and a specific clause that applies to criminals. The film cites prision population statistics from 1970  to 2014 to support their claims. Consider the statistics from the film below and answer the questions that follow.

Year	US Prison Population
1970	357,292
1980	513,900
1985	759,100
1990	1,179,200
2000	2,015,300
2014	2,306,200

1.     What is the average rate of change of the prison population from 1970 to 1980?

2.     What is the average rate of change of the prison population from 1980 to 1990?

3.     What is the average rate of change of the prison population from 1990 to 2000?

4.     What is the average rate of change of the prison population from 2000 to 2014?

5.     What do your answers to the questions above tell you about the US prision population over the past 50 years?

6.     The movie opens with Obama saying the following.

·       5% of the world’s population is American

·       25% of the world’s prision population is Amcrican

What does this make you think about the prison population in America verses the rest of the world? How does this make you feel?