Faculty

Profile

Debasmita Basu completed her Ph.D in Mathematics Education from Montclair State University, New Jersey. Born and brought up in India, Debasmita came to the United States to pursue her doctoral studies in 2014. Before that, she was a high school mathematics teacher in India for four years. During her time teaching there, she was dismayed that her students tended to consider mathematics as a set of rules and formulas with little to no connection to their lives. Hence, with the greater goal of changing the nature of school mathematics, Debasmita started her doctoral studies. Her research agenda focuses on designing mathematical activities that aim to cultivate students’ critical consciousness towards various social and environmental justice issues and help them realize the power and value of mathematics. Such activities develop within students an appreciation towards the utilitarian value of mathematics in their daily lives and use mathematics literacy to understand social and environmental phenomenon relevant to their lives.

Degrees Held

Ph.D in Mathematics Education, Montclair State University, New Jersey, 2019.

Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) in Mathematics, Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata, 2012.

Masters in Mathematics, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, India, 2010.

Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in Mathematics, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata, 2008.

Professional Affiliation

·      American Mathematical Society (AMS).

·      National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

·      American Educational Research Association (AERA).

·      TODOS: Mathematics for All.

·      North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PMENA).

Recent Publications

Ellis, Basu, D., Chan, & Harper (2022). The Value of a School Lunch. Upper Elementary School Social Justice Math Book. In T. G. Bartell, C. Yeh, M. D. Felton-Koestler, R. Q. Berry III, and colleagues (Eds.), Upper elementary mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 

Chan, Basu, D., Ellis, Harper, & Ruef (2022). The True Cost of that $29 T-shirt in the Store Window. Middle School Social Justice Math Book. In B. M. Conway IV, L. Id- Deen, M. C. Raygoza, A. Ruiz, J. W. Staley, E. Thanheiser, and colleagues (Eds.), Middle school mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Basu, D., & Nguyen, H. (2021). Eating Healthy: Understanding Added Sugar through Proportional Reasoning. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23):12821. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312821.

Basu, D., & Nguyen, H. (2021). COVID-19 and its Disparate Impacts on Black Families. Benjamin Banneker Association’s journal, The Lighthouse Almanac, 2(1), 21-32.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., Zhu, M., Lal, P. & Samanthula, B. (2020). The Mathematics of Gravity. Mathematics Teacher: Learning and Teaching PreK-12, 113(1), 39-46.

Davidson, J., Greenstein, S., Basu, D., & Davidson, J. (2020). Making mathematical sense of food justice. In R. Q. Berry, III, B. Conway, IV, B. R. Lawler, & J. W. Staley (Eds.), High school mathematics lessons to explore, understand, and respond to social injustice: Corwin Mathematics & National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2020). Examining the Role of Covariational Reasoning in Developing Students’ Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect. In Proceedings of the epiSTEME 8 International Conference to Review Research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education. Mumbai, India.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2019). Integrating Covariational Reasoning and Technology into the Teaching and Learning of the Greenhouse Effect. Journal of Mathematics Education, 12(1), 6-23.

Basu, D., & Greenstein, S. (2019). Cultivating a Space for Critical Mathematical Inquiry through Knowledge-Eliciting Mathematical Activity. Occasional Paper Series, 2019(41), 4.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., & Zhu, M. (2019, March). Examining the Social Aspect of Climate Change through Mathematics. Paper presented In Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2019 IEEE.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2018). Expanding Students’ Contextual Neighbourhoods of Measurement Through Dynamic Measurement. In T. E. Hodges, G. J. Roy, & A. M. Tyminski, (Eds.), Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (p. 1155- 1162) Greenville, SC: University of South Carolina & Clemson University.

Performances and Appearances

Basu, D., Vishnubhotla, M., & Hua, A. (2023). Analysis of Middle School Mathematics Textbooks to Uncover the Presence of Social Issue Contexts. Paper to be presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Reno, Nevada. October 1-4. 

Basu, D., & Nguyen, H. (2023). Role of Authentic Contexts in Proportional Reasoning. Poster to be presented at the 45th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Reno, Nevada. October 1-4. 

Basu, D., & Overby, C. (2022). Critical Thinking about Informative and Misleading Graphs. Paper presentation at National Numeracy Network (NNN): Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 21-23.

Basu, D. & & Overby, C. (2022). Exploring minimum wages and well-being. Presentation to be given through AMS Special Session on Quantitative Literacy and Society, at the 2022 Joint Mathematics Meetings: Seattle, Washington.

Basu, D. & & Overby, C. (2021). Who benefits from Sweatshops? Looking at a social justice issue through a quantitative lens. National Numeracy Network (NNN) Virtual Conference. 

Basu, D. & Panorkou, N. (2021). Task Design Features for Integrating covariational Reasoning with Science. Paper presentation at the 14th International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME-14). Shanghai, China.

Basu, D. & Panorkou, N. (October 2020). Utilizing Mathematics to Examine Sea Level Rise as an Environmental and A Social Issue. Paper presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Yust, A., Basu, D., & Overby, C. (2020). Teaching Social Justice and Responsibility through a Quantitative Reasoning Framework in Two Classroom Modules. Presentation to be given at the 2020 Joint Mathematics Meetings: Denver, CO.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2020). Examining the Role of Covariational Reasoning in Developing Students’ Understanding of the Greenhouse Effect. Presentation to be given at the epiSTEME 8 International Conference to Review Research on Science, Technology and Mathematics Education. Mumbai, India.

Davidson, J., Basu, D., & Greenstein, S. (2019, July) The Power of Mathematical Power to Right Wrongs and Write Rights. Paper presented at the Free Minds, Free People Conference, Twin Cities, MN.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2019). Greenhouse effect: An Issue of Social Justice through Mathematical Lense. Poster presented at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2018 Research Conference, San Diego, April 2019.

Panorkou, N. & Basu, D. (2019). Exploring Gravity Through Mathematics. Paper presented at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2018 Research Conference, San Diego, April 2019.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2019). Examining the social aspects of the Greenhouse effect through mathematics. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Toronto.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., & Zhu, M. (2019, March). Examining the Social Aspect of Climate Change through Mathematics. Paper presented In Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 2019 IEEE.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2019). Developing Students' consciousness about Greenhouse Effect through Dynamic Mathematical Activities. Paper presented at the 2019 Joint Mathematics Meetings: Baltimore, MD.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2018). Expanding Students’ Contextual Neighbourhoods of Measurement Through Dynamic Measurement. Paper presented in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Greenville, SC.

Basu, D., & Panorkou, N. (2018). Examining the Social Aspects of Greenhouse Effect Through Mathematical Modeling. Poster presented in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Greenville, SC.

Panorkou, N., Basu, D., & Vishnubhotla, M. (2018). Investigating Volume as Base Times Height Through Dynamic Task Design. Paper presented in the Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Greenville, SC.

Zhu, M., Panorkou, N., Etikyala, S., Basu, D., Street-Conaway, T., Iranah, P., Mazol, D., Hannum, C., Marshall, R., Lal, P., Samanthula, B. (2018) Steerable Environmental Simulations for Exploratory Learning. Paper presented at E-Learn, Las Vegas, NV.

Basu, D. & Greenstein, S. (2018, June) Designing Tasks that Elicit Children’s Multiple Mathematical Knowledge Bases. Presentation given at the TODOS: Mathematics for All Conference, Scottsdale, AZ.

Basu, D., Panorkou, N., & Vishnubhotla, M. (2018) Evaluating the impact of Dynamic Measurement on students’ thinking of area. Presentation given at the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2018 Research Conference, Washington DC, April 2018. 

Awards And Honors

2023: Received Lang Faculty Opportunity Award (2023-24). Awarded $1500 towards the project: Fighting Fake News with Mathematics. (PI) 

2022: Appointed as SENCER scholar. Appointed by National Center for Science and Civic Engagement (NCSCE) and SENCER. 

2021: Up to Us Voting Modules Fellow for 2021-2022. https://www.projectpericles.org/voting-modules.html. 

2021: Received Lang Faculty Opportunity Award (2021-22). Awarded $1,388.32 towards the project, Mathematics Textbook Content Analysis. (PI) 

2020: AMTE STaR Fellow (Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators Service, Teaching, and Research in Mathematics Education) January 2020. Awarded by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (https://amte.net/star)