By Jenny Scott
“...just like you do in maths!”
But is it just like they do in maths? In the science department recently we’ve become acutely aware of the importance of maths within science, and how we teach this to students. The Association for Science Education (ASE) published in 2016 “The Language of Mathematics in Science”, in which they identify ten different mathematical “‘kinds of things we do in science’:
- Collecting data
- Doing calculations and representing values
- Choosing how to represent data
- Drawing charts and graphs
- Working with proportionality and ratio
- Dealing with variability
- Looking for relationships: line graphs
- Looking for relationships: batches and scatter graphs
- Scientific models and mathematical equations
- Mathematics in the real world
Each and every one of these has links to the maths curriculum - we know that students are taught these things in maths, but we found that we didn’t know when or how they were taught them!
To support our students in using their maths skills in science, we decided to launch a cross-department project to make our science and maths curricula more cohesive. This started with our KSCos and DoLs meeting to compare our curriculum mapping to simply identify when certain skills are taught in maths, and when those same skills are taught in science. This was eye-opening as we found that some skills which we were taking for granted in KS3 science (e.g. rearranging an algebraic equation) were not taught explicitly in maths until Year 9!
Our next step was to enlist the help of our whole departments in a joint department meeting to create a ‘STEM Dictionary’ in which we included common mathematical words and were able to discuss their definitions and uses in both maths and science. The maths department also modelled how they would teach certain skills. This was a really valuable experience as we were able to identify several areas of maths in science where we tend to approach it in a completely different way to the maths department - which must be confusing for students!
We are now in the process of adjusting our teaching of mathematical skills in science to reflect the methods used in maths (“equation triangles” are banished forever!), as well as the maths department working on including more science-based examples in their teaching. Overall - an ongoing but exciting project!
Yes! Yes! Yes! This is SO exciting to read, Jenny, thank you! It's exactly the kind of high level curricular discussions and coordination that I want to become the norm at WA. As Ste put it, we want "Horizontal coherence [that is] increased but not forced".
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