A part of 4.1 Lightning Talk session

Vicki Zhang, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Statistical Sciences, FAS

I have been championing the pedagogy of narrative mathematics since 2016. In this new first-year seminar course, I deepened this practice by enlisting various forms of media and arts to actively immerse my students in their journey of exploring basic financial math.

Students in this course are highly diverse in their academic background, and therefore such a teaching strategy serves two immediate purposes: (1) for students from the humanities, it breaks down the complex financial concepts into less intimidating, relatable human stories; (2) for students from quantitative fields, it allows them to see the human side of the equation and makes it possible to open the door for financial ethics discussions. Every seminar opened with a financial “puzzle” from a media source (e.g. film, TV talk show, stage play). We then spent the rest of the seminar exploring both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the puzzle through a variety of student-centered, active learning activities. The course culminated in a close reading of a famous play on finance where students were cast as different characters to understand a leveraged buyout story and to explore bigger themes such as the financialization of economy, all through an intimate, immersive experience.

In this session, I will present details of the teaching strategy with examples, discuss the efficacy of using media and arts to illustrate financial problems, and the importance of treating students as peer-teachers. I will also encourage participants to brainstorm novel ways for cross-pollination between arts and science education.