Tuesday, September 19th, 2:00pm CDT
Authors JaNay Brown-Wood, Rajani Larocca, Art Coulson, and Jenny Lacika come together to discuss the importance of storytelling, inclusion, and cultural representation in math education. Their joyful stories celebrate children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Come share your own experiences of inclusive STEM lessons with other educators and ask the panelists your questions.
A Certificate of Attendance will be issued to those who attend this webinar. A recording will be posted to Mackin.com for those who cannot participate in the live session.
Speakers
JaNay Brown-Wood
Author
JaNay Brown-Wood is an early childhood professor and the author of several books for children, including Shhh! The Baby’s Asleep and Grandma’s Tiny House. She also contributed to the poetry anthology Thanku: Poems of Gratitude. Much of JaNay’s work celebrates casual diversity and primarily features Black characters. JaNay lives in California.
Rajani Larocca
Author
Rajani LaRocca is a book lover, doctor, and foodie who was born in India, raised in Kentucky, and now lives in the Boston area. Her debut middle grade novel, Midsummer’s Mayhem, is an Indian American mashup of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and competitive baking.
Art Coulson
Author
Art Coulson is a writer of Cherokee, English, and Dutch descent and comes from a family of storytellers in all three traditions. Art, the 2023 McKnight Fellow in Children’s Literature, is the author of more than a dozen books, graphic novels, and plays, including the middle grade novel Chasing Bigfoot (2022), The Reluctant Storyteller (2020), and Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi! (2021). The Reluctant Storyteller was named a Best Book of 2020 by Bank Street, and American Indians in Children’s Literature. Look, Grandma! Ni, Elisi! was named a Best STEM Children’s Book by the National Science Teaching Association in 2022, and featured on the inaugural broadcast of Reading Rainbow Live. Art splits his time between his home in Minneapolis and his lake cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin.
Jenny Lacika
Author
Jenny Lacika grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she learned to work together with an older brother and a younger brother. She graduated from MIT after she discovered how math could break down walls and open doors, and she never stopped loving books. She now lives in her hometown with her husband and two kids.
Kia Heise, Ph.D. – Host
Mackin Learning
Kia Heise holds a doctorate in sociology and taught in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities for several years before joining Mackin Learning. Her approach is informed by thousands of hours learning how to navigate discussions of social inequality with diverse groups of young people. She is also the author of the Little Sock picture books.
