Shaping Real-World Impact Through Math!
Welcome to MathUp Connections, a math mentoring enrichment program brought to you by the University of Pittsburgh Center for Urban Education. We're reimagining math education by blending tutors with cutting-edge technology, creating an immersive learning journey that bridges the gap between math and real-world application.
MathUp Connections goes beyond traditional learning methods, providing a dynamic space where math comes to life. Our engaging program is designed to empower middle school students with the tools and knowledge they need to connect mathematical concepts to the world around them.
Formerly known as Ready to Learn, MathUp Connections is an integral part of the larger research practice partnership with Carnegie Mellon University—PLUS - Personalized Learning Squared (PL²), funded by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Heinz Endowments. Together, we're committed to addressing the opportunity gap for urbanized students through personalized mentoring and innovative artificial intelligence learning software.
Middle School Students
Our commitment extends to middle school students in the Pittsburgh region, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to thrive. By participating in MathUp Connections, students can:
- Gain confidence in their ability to approach and solve complex problems.
- Collaborate with peers in small-group settings, strengthening relationships.
- Develop research and digital literacy skills as they craft and present their own projects.
- Critically examine social justice problems, impacting their community.
With MathUp Connections, students embark on a transformative journey that discovers a world where math becomes more than just numbers—it becomes a tool for empowerment, change, and growth.
Math Mentors - Pitt Students
The Center for Urban Education equips the math mentors with the skills and knowledge needed to make a lasting impact on middle school students' lives. Through comprehensive seminar-training sessions, our math mentors develop five essential competencies that enable them to effectively tutor and mentor, fostering growth and success in every student.
- Urban Context: Will be better equipped to address the unique challenges and opportunities in urban learning environments.
- Teaching, Tutoring, and Pedagogy: Create meaningful and effective learning experiences that resonate with every student.
- Mentoring and Social Support: Foster strong relationships and inspire confidence, resilience, and personal growth in the students.
- Research (Action Research): Conduct research that directly impacts the mentoring approach; being at the forefront of improving student outcomes.
- Technology: Create dynamic and effective learning experiences for diverse student populations.
Learn more and apply to be a math mentor.
Why Did the Name Change?
The renaming is a reframing. Our shift away from “Ready to Learn” is a refusal of assumptions that plundered communities are not pedagogical ones and that education practice is only possible within state institutions. It refuses a position that we are ineducable—an idea that forms and reforms education practice in the afterlife of slavery. We affirm Black and Indigenous communities as sites of teaching and learning and seek to honor the ways communal knowledges have been paramount for youth learning in this program. We hope this act of revision prompts a deep and reflective question aligned to our mission and principles: Regarding education as a practice of freedom, are we ready to learn?