External Event

Thursday, 9th Jul 2026 — Friday, 10th Jul 2026

V205, Mathematics Building

Free to register: visit the FYIMaths 2026 registration page.

Dr Henry Fowler

(Navajo Technical University)

Weaving Mathematics: Navajo Ethnomathematics Through Kinship and the Batten Stick

This presentation demonstrates how Diné (Navajo) cultural knowledge provides authentic contexts for teaching mathematics. The Diné kinship system teaches relationships long before students encounter formal mathematics. Identifying parents, grandparents, and clans develops recursive reasoning modeled through binary trees, exponential growth (2 to the nth power), graph theory, geometric series, and algorithmic thinking. Participants will also explore the traditional batten stick (Beeníłʼíníłtłish), a Navajo weaving tool used diagonally across the warp to create a geometric grid for finding midpoints, symmetry, proportional reasoning, and spatial visualization, illustrating Indigenous mathematics as a living system of mathematical knowledge.