What is it about?
The article seeks to promote the use, by teachers of mathematics, of examples of the application of mathematics in other subjects in order to motivate the study of mathematics as a subject that has relevance in the real world. The examples used come largely from biology and the level of mathematics ranges from GCSE through to degree level.
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Why is it important?
Mathematics is often taught in complete isolation from other subjects in the school curriculum. The only visible application is through the use of simple arithmetic, but yet nearly all such applications are now automated, when did you last check your change at the supermarket? Other real world applications are often hidden e.g. the mathematics which enables our mobile phones to operate. However other subjects in the curriculum are of immediate relevance to students and the mathematics, though in many case quite accessible, can be very powerful.
Perspectives
From my perspective there should be motivation to study mathematics that goes beyond the mathematics itself yet many teachers of mathematics are ignorant of what happens in the biology or geography classroom next door in terms of the mathematics their own pupils are using therein. This cannot be good for mathematics or its teaching.
Thomas Roper
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Adventures in shape and space – and time, The Mathematical Gazette, October 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/mag.2018.105.
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