Love stories in a differential equations classroom

AbstractWe believe that developing cultural competencies can help students learn mathematics and conversely that learning mathematical content can help students learn about themselves and others. Using frameworks introduced by Rendón (Citation2009) and Gutiérrez (Citation2018), we present a five-part bundle of activities for undergraduate differential equations course instructors, including one pre-activity reflection assignment, three modeling activities, and a final project. The Pre-Activity Assignment engages students to draw on their own personal and/or cultural experiences with the concept of love. Three activities focus on developing revision skills in mathematical modeling and practicing methods of solving systems of ordinary differential equations (ODEs). In these activities, students would collaborate to construct a relationship model consisting of a system of first-order linear ODEs and solve different model iterations with the characteristic polynomial, matrix form, or Laplace transform method. The final project connects the reflections in Pre-Activity Assignment with the skills developed in the three activities by inviting students to create a relationship scenario, model, revise, solve it, and present the conclusions. By engaging in this set of assignments, students connect personal and cultural experiences with the concept of love and perceive themselves and their peers in the curriculum, fostering a sense of belonging and relevance.Keywords: Mathematical modelingculturally relevant pedagogysystems of linear ordinary differential equationscharacteristic polynomial methodLaplace transform methodmatrix form Data availability statementDetailed solutions, sample MATLAB live scripts, and grading rubrics are available upon request. We purposefully do not include them here in case students attempt to search for solutions online.AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to express our gratitude to the guest editors and reviewers for providing valuable feedback and insightful suggestions. The authors also appreciate the organizations of SIMIODE EXPO 2022, where the idea of this project started.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 This section tests future SAT questions. These unscored sections look just like the scored sections of the SAT so students do not know which sections are scored or unscored.