Counted Out investigates the biggest crises of our time through an unexpected lens: math.

In our current information economy, math is everywhere. The people we date, the news we see, the influence of our votes, the candidates who win elections, the education we have access to, the jobs we get—all of it is underwritten by an invisible layer of math that few of us understand, or even notice.

But whether we know it or not, our numeric literacy—whether we can speak the language of math—is a critical determinant of social and economic power.

Through a mosaic of personal stories, expert interviews, and scenes of math transformation in action, Counted Out shows what's at risk if we keep the status quo. Do we want an America in which most of us don't consider ourselves "math people"? Where math proficiency goes down as students grow up? Or do we want a country where everyone can understand the math that undergirds our society—and can help shape it?

The film is dedicated to Bob Moses, the civil rights leader and MacArthur genius who saw math access as the civil rights issue of our time, and whose work we follow in some of the last filmed interviews of his life.

Math anxiety and lack of motivation can be significant barriers to student success in foundational mathematics courses. In this presentation, we will discuss two initiatives intended to target these challenges: an 8-week online course designed to reduce math anxiety and build self-efficacy, and a personalized academic improvement plan intended to support repeater students through regular faculty interaction.

Math anxiety is the feeling of nervousness or fear that can create difficulty in learning or doing mathematics. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between math anxiety and math achievement. In an 8-week online course, students studied topics including math anxiety, mindset, and memory formation. These students completed a video presentation describing a real-world application of mathematics. Hence, they examined root causes of their math anxiety, strategies for dealing with these negative feelings, and explored mathematics applications. A comparison of pre- and post-course MSEAQ results showed an increase in reported self-efficacy regarding mathematics.

Data show that half of all students who have dropped/failed Survey of Calculus or Finite Mathematics at the University of Arkansas will drop/fail again. These students face a lack of motivation and a fair amount of anxiety toward mathematics. To make connections and create an environment in which they are comfortable discussing any issues with the professor, repeater students were asked to meet with the professor to complete a personalized academic improvement plan. This plan establishes the need for regular contact with the instructor and should increase the student's level of comfort with the instructor. Utilizing the "Academic Improvement Plan" serves as a catalyst for students to meet face to face with their professor and provides a roadmap for continuing that contact on a consistent and regular basis, regardless of the course. We believe that frequent and regular faculty/student interactions will result in increased academic success for this group of at-risk students while allowing these students to develop a deeper understanding of course materials and to cultivate skills applicable to other courses/situations.

Shanda Hood is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She earned her B.S. in Mathematics at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith in 2007 and her Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Arkansas - Fayetteville in 2014. She primarily teaches foundational mathematics courses and currently serves as the course coordinator for MATH 22003 Survey of Calculus. Her primary research interests include math anxiety, motivation, and academic integrity.

Joshua Girshner is a mathematics educator with 14 years of experience teaching at the college level. His work focuses on effective pedagogy and innovative course design, including experience in coordinating large (2000+ student) foundational mathematics courses. He is actively involved in the mathematics education community, regularly presenting his research and insights at national and international conferences. Currently, he teaches at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

Come learn how to use CalcPlot3D, a free online web app designed to dynamically visualize topics from multivariable calculus, with applications in other courses as well! This tool makes it easy to visually explore two- and three-dimensional calculus concepts and the relationships between them. Through visual verification of problem solutions and interactive exploration of surfaces, contour plots, curves, velocity and acceleration, directional derivatives, gradients, vector fields, regions of integration, and more, this project seeks to improve students' geometric intuition, so they will more fully understand the application of these concepts in their STEM coursework. As time allows, volumes of revolution and topics from differential equations may also be demonstrated. This project was funded by NSF-IUSE 1524968 and NSF-IUSE #2121152.

Paul Seeburger is a Professor of Mathematics at Monroe Community College in Rochester, NY, where he has taught since 1998. His primary research interest has been developing computer visualization tools to help students develop a better geometric understanding of calculus concepts. He is the lead Principal Investigator on an NSF grant project titled: Taking CalcPlot3D to the Next Dimension: Creating 3D-Printed Learning Materials. Paul has presented on these materials at ICTCM, the JMM, MathFest, and AMATYC (American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges).

Although the prime numbers are the building blocks of arithmetic, they still hold many mysteries. Some questions that were familiar to Euclid and the ancient Greeks remain unanswered. How did several undergraduates help discover intriguing new phenomena in the large-scale behavior of the primes? What did they find? What do prime numbers have to do with insect swarms, cybersecurity, and the search for alien life? Come to this talk to find out!

Stephan Ramon Garcia is W.M. Keck Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Pomona College. He is the author of six books and over 120 research articles in operator theory, complex analysis, matrix analysis, number theory, discrete geometry, combinatorics, and other fields. This includes dozens of papers published with students, many of whom have gone on to top graduate programs. He has served on the editorial boards of the Proceedings of the AMS, Notices of the AMS, Involve, and The American Mathematical Monthly. He has received five NSF research grants as principal investigator and six teaching awards from three different institutions. He is a Fellow of the AMS and the inaugural winner of the AMS Dolciani Prize for Excellence in Research.

What if learning STEM subjects— especially math and computer science — could be more fun, engaging, and intuitive through the power of visual thinking?

In this talk, we'll explore the potential of STEAM (STEM + Arts) and visual thinking tools to interact with knowledge in a new light. We'll focus on Fractal Gridding, a novel note-taking and learning method, and how it was used to write "Bit by Bit", an award-winning educational computer science comic book published by the Stanford University Press.

In addition to diving into the journey of "Bit by Bit", we'll discuss ways Fractal Gridding can help students break down complex topics, make abstract concepts more approachable, and see connections in new ways. We'll also explore the joys of educational comics (with a math example or two!) as well as lessons and learnings from Ecy's journey going "Full STEAM Ahead" during her time at Stanford.

At the end of the talk, the hope is that listeners would feel:

1. inspired to explore the power of visual thinking and joyful learning in their own contexts, and
2. equipped with concrete ways to go full STEAM ahead with visual thinking tools, Fractal Gridding, and even educational entertainment.
3. Use Fractal Gridding to have fun while visually taking notes and summarizing information.

Ecy Femi King lives in Clovis, CA. She recently graduated from Stanford University with a BS with Distinction in Symbolic Systems (concentrating in Human-centered AI, 2023) and an MS in Computer Science. At Stanford, she was heavily involved in the computer science (CS, 2024) teaching community. A long-time teaching assistant (TA), she instructed a CS class, served as Head TA for Stanford’s introductory CS class, volunteered at coding camps, and trained incoming TAs. At Stanford, she was also a 3-time class president, Stanford Daily Writer, and member of the Stanford Alumni Association Board of Directors.

King is the author of the award-winning Bit by Bit (2024), an educational comic book published by the Stanford University Press. The book explores introductory CS. She also wrote "Una Kushe" (2024), another comic-style guide for CS TAs. The latter is being used in Stanford's TA training curriculum. Both comics make use of the Fractal Gridding medium. For her innovative work in design and CS, Ecy has been recognized by Fast Company, the NYC Department of Education, Cadence Design Systems, the Stanford Report, and Stanford Magazine.

Currently, she works at McGraw Hill as a data scientist.