Use Math to Combat Homelessness
The thirty-six AP Statistics students walked through Community First on a Tuesday morning. Village of Mobile Loaves and Fishes is a non-profit in Austin that focuses on the betterment and needs of the homeless. This community village, which was founded by the organization, is a peaceful sanctuary with miniature-homes straight out of a magazine and gardens that dot the landscape. The high school students walked through the rows of RVs and houses, waiting with baited breaths to get copies of the survey that they had helped design for the village residents.
The students visited each door and shared their stories with residents. They also completed the survey for their school project, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, which was also known as MLF, in order to help them fight homelessness. MLF asked the math students to work together with them to answer the question: Is there a reason why people are homeless? Students from high school used the knowledge and concepts they had gained throughout the year to edit and conduct a survey that was sent to residents of the community village.
Everyone will benefit from efforts to end homelessness. Mobile Loaves and Fishes, a well-established homeless outreach ministry, is based in Austin science project board. It aims to curb, and hopefully eventually eliminate, homelessness and its causes. MLF partnered with Regents School of Austin’s AP Statistics students to get more data about the effectiveness of their Community First! Village is a philosophy that poverty and lack of community are the main causes of homelessness.
“We believe that what we see anecdotally about the property is being confirmed through statistical analysis, so this [the AP Statistics] project is our favorite,” Alan Graham, Mobile Loaves and Fishes director and co-founder, stated. It confirms the model of Community First that a kingdom-based model that is all about community is the best model to move the needle. We need this data.”
This project demonstrated that math and making an impact in the world can be linked. The AP Statistics students from Regents had the opportunity to learn exploratory data analysis and data collection. They also learned statistical inference and probability. Students also had the opportunity to improve their communication skills. The culmination of all the hard work by the students was presented to MLF representatives by the students.
