As an activist, Sulock, 65, also champions what she calls "socially responsible math." Growing up in suburban New Jersey with a "beatnik" father, Sulock got a dose of idealism early on. Then, for a number of years, she taught a summer class on nuclear nonproliferation and saw that her students struggled to understand the math concepts. Over time, she incorporated nuclear nonproliferation into her math curriculum, and now her UNCA Reality Math course includes units on measuring the explosive yield of the combined nuclear forces of China, the United States and Russia. It also includes calculating an American’s ecological footprint, tabulating production and consumption of world oil, and detecting gender differences in prison sentencing data. "My idea is that [teaching this way] could make math and the world a whole lot better," Sulock says, her large peace-sign earrings seeming to swing in agreement. "If you think about it, it’s very weird that people graduate high school without knowing anything about a kilowatt hour or any of the practical things they need to know to be responsible citizens."

Entering Dot Sulock’s class is like entering a new reality for students used to more traditional teaching methods. Sulock corrals the students, hands out word problems that she has developed based on real-life situations, and then students have to figure out the math. "What I do in class is knit," Sulock says wryly, explaining that she sees herself a resource rather than a person who just shows a student what to do. As she knits, she listens to the students as they work out the problem. When they appeal to her for help, she asks them questions until they figure it out. "Students hate this," she says. "They come in saying, ‘Show us what to do.’ I say, ‘Problems never have one answer. All I can do is help you learn how to think.’" — Janet Hurley