IMAGINE MATH CLASS Video Contest

Thank you to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) educators and all student and teacher participants, as well as friends worldwide, who joined us on October 28th to celebrate the winners of the Fall 2021 IMAGINE MATH CLASS video contest and share ideas about the future of math class in an anti-racist world.

A recording of the event will be shared to this page in the coming days, but you can view the six highlighted videos below. We are proud of everyone who participated in this year's contest, and grateful for your visions of a world where mathematics and math classrooms are welcoming to everyone.

 

Fall 2021 Contest Video Highlights

 

 

 

Fall 2021 Video Contest (Submissions closed)

What is this? A video competition for youth (ages 13–18) to imagine the future of math class in an anti-racist world. *As of October 18, 2021, submissions are closed for this contest. View the highlighted videos and winners above.

How can I participate? 

1. Youth: Submit a 3-minute video by October 18, 2021 to participate in our video contest. See below for complete details.
    
2. Middle and High School Math Teachers: Help spread the word and share this opportunity with your students.
    
3. Youth + Teachers + Adults: Join us on Thursday, October 28 for a live online conversation and award announcement celebration. Learn more below and register online for the Zoom link (registration closed Oct. 28, 2021). You can also share the videos with your school community.

How do I join the video contest?  For youth in the United States who are ages 13-18 at the time of submission:

• Record your video (3 minutes or less).
• This is an individual or team project. If submitting as a team, you may have 2-10 students on your team, including on- and off-camera roles.
• A teacher at your school or another adult must upload the final video to the Gather Voices platform using the prompts below.

What will you do with the submissions? Highlighted video entries and winners will be posted to the National Math Festival website and/or shared on our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram). You can also view the NMF Gather Voices Privacy Policy (opens new window).

What is the deadline? Submissions were accepted from August 15 through October 18, 2021.

 

Competition Sponsors

Who is sponsoring this? The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (opens new window) (MSRI) is a non-profit organization for professional mathematicians dedicated to research in mathematics, but also to building a better world for young people through hosting public events such as the National Math Festival. 

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (opens new window) (NCTM) advocates for high-quality mathematics teaching and learning for each and every student.

 

IMAGINE MATH CLASS: How to Participate & Video Guidelines

In the videos below, Kirsten and Desiree explain how to participate in the contest: 

 

IMAGINE MATH CLASS: Video Guidelines

You are stepping into a future world as YOU want it to be. Don’t worry about what’s possible, or how much money it costs, or how broken the system is now. Call on your powers of imagination. Call on your personal power. Imagine the way YOU want the math class of the future to be.

Your teacher or another adult will upload your finished video to the Gather Voices website. Choose your prompt:

• IMAGINE MATH CLASS – IN COLOR
• IMAGINE MATH CLASS – WITH YOUTH AT THE CENTER
• IMAGINE FREEDOM + MATH CLASS = ....

Then show us what you’ve got!

Up to ten winning videos will be chosen to screen their videos at a public online event on October 28, 2021. Winning teams are eligible to receive $500 worth of Mathical award-winning books (opens new window) to share with the students at their school. These are graphic novels, and thrillers, and novels about gaming, and biographies, and all kinds of stories with math and youth of color at the center.

As part of the Spring 2021 contest, all submissions were chosen to screen their videos at the 2021 National Math Festival. We are grateful to all the students who participated in the contest, despite the challenges of the 2020-21 school year. You can see their entries here. These students were also eligible to receive $500 worth of Mathical award-winning books (opens new window) to share with the students at their school. These are graphic novels, and thrillers, and novels about gaming, and biographies, and all kinds of stories with math and youth of color at the center.

IMAGINE MATH CLASS: Sample Videos

Get inspired by the following videos created during past contests of the National Math Festival:

Math & Social Justice Videos for Your Inspiration

Thanks to our friends at QSIDE (opens new window) for sharing their math & social justice stories! Here you can learn more about how applied mathematicians use math to investigate their world to create a better society.

 

Additional Information

Why is this important? Racism happens everywhere, including in math class. If you haven't noticed it before, this is a chance to notice it now, by watching the videos showing the experiences of your peers around the country.

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I'm confused. How can math be racist? It's just numbers. Every human environment is permeated by the culture in which we live. It's hard to see our surrounding culture sometimes. If our culture is working well for us, it might seem "normal" or invisible. This is a chance to uncover how math class looks or feels to someone for whom it is definitely *not* working most of the time.

Another answer to this question looks at, What is math? Is it really just numbers and symbols? Like every other human enterprise, math is inherently human. It is made or discovered — depending on which mathematician you ask! — by human beings. We are all fallible. We all make mistakes. It is to be expected that the way we teach and learn math is mixed up with our identities as white-bodied, Black-bodied, or other individuals. You cannot separate your identity as an embodied person with a racial identity from your identity as a math person.

Each of us is a math person. We all have a relationship to math, one way or another.

Each of us has an embodied racial identity, regardless of the color of our skin.

This is a project that invites youth to explore how these two identities overlap, inform, or could potentially change each other for the positive — in a fiercely imagined future world.

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Do I have to have internet service, a computer, or a cell phone to enter? No, if you cannot or choose not to make a video, you can submit your answer in writing by email to [email protected], or send it by postal mail (submission deadline has ended).

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Are there any other guidelines for making my video? Your teacher or another adult will upload your completed video to the Gather Voices website. If you have other questions, contact us at [email protected].