Culturally Relevant Design Practices: A Case Study For Designing Interactive Algebra Lessons For Urban Youth

When culture is integrated into the mathematics classroom, it improves students' academic achievement, helps move classrooms towards an equitable learning environment, helps students to have positive beliefs about mathematics, and integrates mathematics with other disciplines. Moreover, if you observe today's kids, the use of video games in their daily and/or weekly routines is significant. Lastly, the predominant genre among African-American youth is hip- hop/rap. These facts led to a process for designing culturally relevant educational games for engaged learning. As a byproduct of this process, the African-American Distributed Multiple Learning Styles System (AADMLSS pronounced 'adam less') City Stroll was created. AADMLSS is an adaptive, electronic, speech-enabled algebra learning system that uses culture to influence learning in the form of an animated, music-led interface.