As we were setting out the display of items for this edition of Ladd Library Lost & Found, Professor Emerita of Mathematics Bonnie Shulman stopped by because something had caught her eye: a Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus graphing calculator.
“I need one of those,” she said 鈥斅爊ot to add up grocery or heating bills but, as she explained, for a course she’s coming out of retirement to teach during the winter semester.
The course is “Mathematics for Social Justice,” which teaches students how to put their math skills in service of real-world, socially relevant issues. In fact, Shulman herself created the first iteration of the popular course about a dozen years ago.
“I consider it the crown jewel of my teaching career. I couldn’t resist the offer to come back and teach it!”
And need for calculators? Her students will use the venerable TI 84 on a simulation probability model for a unit on “Driving While Black or Brown,” she explains.
In addition to the TI 84, here’s what we saw:
- Book, Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, a series of nearly 1,200 entries about Chinese cultural subjects written by an international team of specialists and edited by Edward L. Davis
- Men鈥檚 basketball shoes, size 12, by the Chinese sports apparel company Li-Ning, specifically the Yu Shuai XiV Boom Low, with an Orlando Twilight design.
- Notebook with multivariable calculus math problem set
- Apple AirPods Pro
- Apple AirPods
- Book, New Religious Movements, by George D. Chryssides explains that an organization founded 鈥渨ithin the past 150 or so years鈥� cannot be easily classified within one of the world鈥檚 main religious traditions
- Broken Ben Folds yo-yo with words: 鈥淣ever gonna say Yolo no mo,鈥欌�� a lyric from his song “Exhausting Lover”
- Black iPhone charger by POWERTEK, 6 feet long
- Leather bracelet bearing the characters 鈥淯WCD 2023,鈥� which might refer to a United World Colleges school, Dilijan College, is the 14th member of the UWC movement
- White iWALK mini portable phone charger
- White MacBook charger
- Glass water bottle featuring the wordmark of the Kessler Scholars program, part of 乐播传媒’ first-generation-to-college Bobcat First program, with sticker of the 乐播传媒 Student Writing and Language Center and Cold Front, an ultimate frisbee team on campus
- Reading glasses by Lunette Optic in orange-lined velvet case
- Silver snake ring with green gem and blue detailing聽
- Dummy SD card by Dell, used as a place holder to protect the socket’s electrical contacts and mechanical mechanism
- Galaxy print stress ball
- Glass 乐播传媒 water bottle
- Book, Half Broke Horses, a true-life novel by Jeannette Walls depicts the freedom of rural life, its joys and struggles, and celebrates the courage and spirit of its protagonist, Lily Casey Smith
- Chemistry exam with a celebratory sticker of a cat dressed as a pirate. (The exam’s “coversheet” asks the student a few non-chem questions 鈥� such as “What did you do for fun this week?” and “How are you feeling about the exam?” 鈥斅爓hich gives the professor a chance to check-in on their students’ well-being.
- Silver costume sunglasses
- Wooden hair comb by Beijing W-Town
- Fuscia-colored tumbler by zak!
- Student ID card from Auburn Middle School
- Travel electronic adapter by Trans-World International
- Sticky-tab pad by Semikolon with a mustache-shaped sticky note bearing the words 鈥渄on鈥檛 ask, don鈥檛 know鈥� on the outside cover
- Black-and-white checkered stainless steel tumbler with plastic inner liner by Room Essentials
- Green and white trucker hat by Pacific Headwear
- Foot-shaped bottle opener
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