Math4Team/RIT

Math4 at RIT and in Rochester NY

It started as a big idea.

Then Dave Nalley, a Fedora Ambassador, asked for XO laptops to work on that big idea.

Meanwhile, in Rochester NY on January 22, 2009, an OLPC Community SIG was starting. At this initial meeting Karlie Robinson learned that Rochester Institute of Technology Professor, Stephen Jacobs, wanted to teach a class around the XO using machines being donated by Nortel.

On February 7, 2009 David Nalley announced the Fedora Developers XO program. A pilot program in North America that would begin to tackle the 4th grade math curriculum using volunteers equipped with 100 donated XO laptops.

This presented an interesting opportunity for the Fedora Project to work with RIT. RIT wants to do an XO class but doesn't have many machines. Fedora is looking for volunteers and has machines to give. Talks began.

On February 26, 2009 it was settled. The Rochester NY OLPC Community SIG and Professor Jacobs class would participate in the Math4 project.

To prepare for the first day of class at RIT, the following has been done;

David Nalley has sent RIT 25 XO laptops for the class.
The FourthGradeMath mailing list[1] has become active
Steve Jacobs has updated the mailing list [2] with details about the Class

Math4 at RIT FAQ

What year are most of the RIT Students?: Most are Jr and Sr in their Major field of study
What are they learning?: Their participation in the Fedora Ambassador North America push for a 4th grade math curriculum will give them experience with Open Source Software development. Beyond that, the students will be choosing what areas of development they participate in.
Are they math majors? Eduction majors? mixed volunteers?: As of this writing, we do have a mix of community volunteers working on this project. The RIT students are divided between Computer Science, Networking, Information Tech, Software engineering and Telecommunications Majors. The students also have the benefit of Eric Grace, a New York State Certified K-12 teacher, as the co-professor for the course.
Do they have 4th graders lined up?: Some. The Fedora Ambassador network has volunteers with a vast array of backgrounds and I do know of a small test group in California.