Mathematics and Language
Learning Centre, Queen Margaret's School, Duncan, B.C.
Veselin Jungic was honoured with the invitation to talk about mathematics to the students enrolled in the SFU Graduate Certificate in the Linguistics of a First Nations Language - Hul'q'umi'num' Cohort Program.
Veselin's visit to Cowichan Bay and Duncan had three segments.
On Monday afternoon a group of students, teaching assistants, and community members met with Veselin and showed him some of the landmarks on the traditional territory. One of those landmarks was the old Stone Church in Cowichan that was built in 1870. George Seymour and Thomas Jones (who narrated the Small Number stories in Hul’q’umi’num’) were wonderful hosts. Their stories about the community and the community traditions will stay with Veselin as a great learning experience for long time.
On Tuesday morning, Veselin joined the whole cohort that included the elders Delores Louie and Ruby Peter. Veselin talked about mathematics, showed his mathematical models, and challenged the group with a few puzzles.
Later on Tuesday, Veselin did a few math hands on activities with smaller groups of students. Thanks to Sally Hart, a Ph.D. candidate, for her help with those activities. One of the students commented that, "doing mathematics was much easier than learning Hul’q’umi’num’."
Finally, this visit would not be possible without the kind invitation and generous support of Professor Donna Gerdts, the head of of the Duncan cohort of the program. Thank you, Donna!
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