What is Henry H. Fowler’s direct phone number? HF: Yes. We want to find these special kids, and grow these special kids. Ashley James was cinematographer, and Kathryn Golden, audio tech. We filmed two sessions, Exploding Dots, a session for high school teachers led by Tatiana Shubin that helps teachers explain place value, addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division, and standard manipulations of polynomials to your students. He embraces math for both practical and philosophical reasons, having thought about it deeply. It was very fun, because it was an enrichment for your mind. KK: Wow. You just have to believe in yourself, and you just have to push. KK: Yeah, this was great, Henry. By late February 2015, planning had begun for the second production expedition to the Navajo Nation. That’s really very cool. Videotaping began on July 19, 2014 at Monument Valley High School in Kayenta. And it goes thump thump thump thump… So that sound resonates in my ear, and I would look across sometimes in her loom, and she would be making and creating a new design, a geometric design. It’s not like regular classrooms where you’re reading a textbook and listening to a teacher in front of the class writing on the board. We have near 50 percent unemployment. He is a member of the Navajo Tribe. Professor and Chair, School of Engineering,... Profiles With a Similar Job Title And Industry, Profiles With a Similar Job Title And Location. HF: The Navajo hogan is normally a nine-sided polygon, but it Navajo can also capture what a circle means by regular polygons, the more sides they have, drawing to become a circle. I feel like I’m slacking. Dr. Fowler told his life story, attributing his successful education to his mother’s advice that he should always remember his Navajo roots and value the traditional way of life. HF: The Navajo Math Circles started seven years ago with a mathematician from San Jose State University, and her name is Tatiana Shubin. I live by the Four Corners in a community, Tsaile, Arizona. A working knowledge of mathematics is necessary for most advanced careers in modern society, and it is partly for this reason that programs like math circles can be so powerful: they not only inspire learning in the moment, but they can have profoundly lasting effects on children’s lives. Use the land, use nature to construct your home with whatever is nearby. She wants to “meet new people, and learn some new math.” Two boys we interviewed who had been in math circles the longest were Stephen “Buddy” Joe and Michael Begay, both students from St. Michael Indian School. Our Navajo production assistants were again Kee Curley and Neilroy Singer. You’d do a lot of different relationships interacting with nature, how it releases patterns. It’s strengthening our math K-12 so we build our infrastructure, we build our economy, we build better lives for my Navajo people, and that we build our own scientists, we build our own doctors and nurses, and we want to promote our own students, to show interests or take the passion and have careers in STEM fields. Our Navajo reservation is as large as West Virginia. I thought I was dumb. HF: I guess I pair my Pythagorean theorem to my identity, who I am, as a Navajo person. Henry H. Fowler works in the industry of K-12 Schools, Education. We have a tribal college here on the Navajo Nation, and that’s what I work for, Diné College. Asali Echols, who has been editor on the film since September 2014, joined us to replace Neil on the last day. On March 27, we filmed in math teacher Corvina Etsitty’s classroom at Many Farms High School. What is Henry H. Fowler’s role in Diné College? Tatiana’s summing up comes very close to what we hope to communicate through this film. - Dawnlei Ben, Navajo culture instructor. We would call it a Navajo hogan. Both the Navajo leaders and the mathematicians from outside are searching for ways to link the math they are communicating to students with the traditional Navajo cosmological, architectural, and artistic concepts rooted in mathematics. We wanted to really promote a different way of thinking about math problems. The sequences showed the teachers actively engaged with each other as they worked on the problems posed by leaders. I’m going to be in 8th grade this year…. Mathematicians, we call it the Pythagorean theorem, but like many things in math, it’s not named after the first person ever to notice this relationship. Yeah, I’ve had to wear a sweater for about a month and a half, so. HF: The practice is beginning not to be learned by our next generation because now our homes are more standardized. That I wasn’t really smart. I brag about this Math Camp, because it’s really a lot of fun. EL: Yeah. They understand that phenomenon too. Need to get in touch with me? EL: And some of our listeners may have seen there’s a documentary about Navajo math circles that has played on PBS some, and we’ll include a link to that for people to learn a little bit about that in the show notes for the episode. And the way, from my perspective, is to promote math education, to bring social justice and to have access to a fair education for my people. And I believe that for everyone. And we grew up that way. A lot of people hate math, I don’t know why. I’m passionate about promoting math education for my people, the Navajo people. The Navajo call it nine full moons because they only capture what’s going on within their environment, and they’re really observant to how the sky and constellations are moving. And I actually think mathematics teaches exactly that. Open-ended questions are totally new to most of the kids. There’s an opening at the center of the hogan, they call the chimney. I would not have finished my education, my western education, but math kept me out of problems, out of trouble growing up. Henry’s passion is promoting math literacy. And when I became a teacher, I kind of struggled with teaching math. From Rock Point we traveled to St. Michaels, where we interviewed Math Camp student Stephan “Buddy” Joe, and his grandfather Stephen Joe, at their home. On the Canyon de Chelly excursion, she put mint water on the heads of overheated hikers. I assume these students have gone on to do pretty interesting things once they finish high school and the circle. I really believe that math kept me out of problems when I was growing up. I live on the Navajo reservation. They can project how the constellations are moving in the sky, so that’s just a little example. She was one of the bright young students at the Math Camp who also shows a serious interest in Navajo culture. The Navajo would use the Pythagorean theorem charting how the sun travels in the sky, so they would open their hogan door, which is always constructed facing east. I live on the Navajo reservation. What is Henry H. Fowler’s business email address? The teacher training workshop organized by Dr. Henry Fowler of Diné College was led by Tatiana Sh, Diné College has added information to its, //collegefund.org/news-list/american-indian-college-fund-names-2013-blanchard-faculty-member-of-the-year-awardees/, Navajo Math Circles: A Film by George Paul Csicsery, http://www.zalafilms.com/navajo/synopsis.html, http://www.zalafilms.com/navajo/about.html. So I wanted to find ways that would interest me to better interest my students and get them more involved in what they’re doing, how they’re manipulating the math, what they need to do in order to encourage more higher order thinking skills, and just getting them more actively involved in it. The crew consisted of George Csicsery as producer/director, cinematographer Ashley James, audio recordist Kathryn Golden, and Native American assistants Kee Curley, Jacqueline Begay, and Neilroy Singer.