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Weapons Of Math Destruction

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A common theme throughout this class for me was seeing mathematical/ statistical ideas and topics in a new light. Many of these aha moments came to me when reading Weapons of Math Destruction. Most often it involved seeing past all the math and statistics and seeing the people being affected by statistical models and methods. Whether it was the teachers that were affected by the value-added models or people being affected by insurance companies, these issues impact everyone in society. Mathematical and statistical literacy are greatly important to civic engagement. A great example from our readings was the article “Data for Good”. In the article D. J. Patil, the first chief data scientist of the United States, discussed his guidelines for his …show more content…

After going through the whole process of my service project from the initial meeting to the final meeting it was nice to see that I can use my math and statistic knowledge in an area outside of the classroom. Not only that, but I was able to serve an organization that serves foster children, many of whom have been abused and neglected. When looking at it that way, I helped to serve the foster children of Santa Cruz County, by providing my skills and time to CASA of Santa Cruz. It was really nice to have read the article “Co-Designing a Healthy Future with Foster Youth & Families” towards the end of my project, because I was able to relate some of the things that was being done to help children in foster care relate to what I was doing to serving foster children in Santa Cruz. The article “Helping, Fixing or Serving?” that we read was always in the back of my mind when working on this project. When I began my service placement in CASA of Santa Cruz I kept in mind that I wanted to serve CASA. What I didn’t want to do was help or fix CASA. I never wanted to think of it as helping CASA, because I didn’t see Cita or CASA of Santa Cruz as less than me. Since I had the mathematical skills I never wanted them to feel any inequality between us. I also didn’t want to fix CASA of Santa Cruz. I didn’t want to just come in, do everything and not see the people behind CASA. …show more content…

In those meetings I would try to use a variation the LARA method when talking with Cita. I would make sure I was actively listening to Cita and making sure I was understanding the point she was trying to get across. I would then affirm her by paraphrasing what she said to make sure we were on the same page. After that I would respond with what I thought we should do based off of what she said. Lastly, I would add more information by telling her about the software I would use and why I would use them. While the meetings were brief, they were productive and helped to reinvigorate me about the project. My supervisor Cita was very passionate about her job and it showed. When we would sit down to discuss the project and what we were going to do from there it was evident that Cita was excited about the project. Seeing her being excited about the project would make me excited as well. It also made me want to do good for not only CASA, but for Cita. My favorite meeting was my final meeting with Cita. I showed her how to produce the graphs for the trends and seeing the look of joy on her face when the graphs popped up was priceless. Driving home from meeting was bittersweet. I couldn't stop smiling, because I had finished something that I put a lot of effort into and Cita liked it. All my hard work had paid off and after talking to Cita about the graphs for the trends she told me that she had been wanting to do this

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