Next week: Hear from the educator bringing hip-hop to STEM education

In order to better engage with students in the classroom, teachers in urban communities need to understand the context they live in.

That’s the main push from educator, author and speaker Chris Emdin, who’s coming to Philly as part of the ExCITe Center’s Learning Innovation Series on Oct. 24.

Emdin, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Columbia University, is the author of Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation and For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood… and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education.

Through Emdin’s Science Genius project, students piece together bars on science and math. Here’s a quick explainer video:

Hip-hop, though, is just one element of Emdin’s approach to education. It’s about helping teachers better approach youth in urban schools by meeting them at their spaces.

(As long as he’s in town, Emdin might want to check out Delaware’s own rapping teacher, MC Caskey.)