Dr. Nathalie Sinclair | An Arithmetic Touch: New Digital Approaches to Mathematics Learning

PFL 2019-2020, President's Faculty Lectures, 2019, Media + Information

How would children’s learning mathematics change if they had unlimited fingers? What if schooling let young students stay ‘in touch’ with objects, operations and ideas, rather than quickly banish hands to their pockets and turn mathematics into an arid and abstract undertaking?

Join Dr. Sinclair as she discusses her design of touchscreen technologies that extend the mathematical reach of learners. This work draws on diverse bodies of knowledge ranging from neuroscience on the neurofunctional link between finger and number processing, to materialist and feminist philosophies refusing mind-body dualisms that undermine the role of fingers, hands and their gestures in thinking. These insights help us imagine new storylines about mathematical learning that break with the all-too-common trajectory leading from confident and curious children to mathematically anxious, benumbed and disempowered adults.

Tue, 26 Nov 2019

6:00 p.m. (PT)

SFU Vancouver Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, Room 1400

We respectfully acknowledge that this event takes place on the Unceded, Traditional, Ancestral Territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh, and Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen, Katzie, and Semiahmoo First Nations.

The President’s Faculty Lectures shine a light on the research excellence at Simon Fraser University. Hosted by the SFU president, these free public lectures celebrate cutting-edge research and faculty that engage with communities and mobilize knowledge to make real-world impacts.

Dr. Nathalie Sinclair is Professor in the Faculty of Education and the Canada Research Chair in Tangible Mathematics Learning. Her research focusses on the embodied nature of mathematical thinking and learning, as well as the role of aesthetics in shaping mathematical experience. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars and received the Svend Pederson Lecture Award for her major and lasting contribution within the field of Mathematics Education.

Event Recording

Nov 26, 2019

Dr. Nathalie Sinclair | An Arithmetic Touch

PFL 2019-2020, President's Faculty Lectures, 2019, Media + Information

Dr. Nathalie Sinclair, Canada Research Chair in Tangible Mathematics Learning, discusses her design of touchscreen technologies that could help make mathematical thinking and learning less abstract and more empowering for children and adults.

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Feb 6, 2020

Dr. Deanna Reder | The Obligations of Stories

2020, PFL 2019-2020, Arts + Culture, President's Faculty Lectures, Indigenous Voices

Cree-Métis literary scholar Dr. Deanna Reder discusses the stories she was told about the 1967 unexplained disappearance of Métis leader Jim Brady and Cree councilor Abbie Halkett, and the responsibilities she holds because she listened.

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Feb 25, 2020

Dr. Faranak Farzan | A Neuroengineering Lens into Treatment of Youth Mental Health and Addiction

Health, 2020, PFL 2019-2020, President's Faculty Lectures

Dr. Faranak Farzan, Chair in Technology Innovations for Youth Addiction Recovery and Mental Health, shares how she and her team are combining neuroscience and engineering to develop novel diagnostic and treatment solutions for youth mental illnesses.

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Mar 10, 2020

Dr. Paul Budra | The Shakespeare Conspiracy

2020, PFL 2019-2020, Arts + Culture, Media + Information, President's Faculty Lectures

English professor Dr. Paul Budra explores the contrasts between the conspiracy theories rampant both in William Shakespeare's time and in our own era (including theories about Shakespeare himself), providing insight into our modern conspiratorial imagination.

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