On September 1, 2023, the CU Denver News published an interview with ThinqStudio Director, Dennis DeBay.
In addition to explaining Thinq's goals and work, Dennis shared his limitless enthusiasm for teaching and learning, as well as his dedication to equity in classrooms everywhere. In that light, he encourages his own students to "bring learner’s worlds into our content" as they teach now and will teach in the future.
The final question that interviewer Natasha Gardner of University Communications asked Dennis was this one, to which he gave an inspired answer.
"Your work often explores intersections between math, wonder, and equity. What is an example of how that happens?"
The way that I think about it is that math isn’t necessarily just a subject to be learned. I think it’s a really powerful tool to understand what’s happening in the world around us… We can do that if we’re able to have more folks engaged in mathematics in a way that they feel good. There are a bunch of different ways for us to think about doing that. We should have this approach where we shouldn’t be focusing on who got the right answer. I want to hear about how they reasoned through it, saying: “You didn’t get the right answer, but what was really cool was the way that you reasoned your way through that.” If we make that move, it allows for students to be much more comfortable.