How to integrate the M back into STEM
Research shows attempts to integrate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in the classroom often exclude Mathematics. It is perceived to be harder to integrate because of its linear nature. Remembering that STEM education is to inspire our students to take up jobs that revolve around all four of these disciplines, it is our challenge to promote not only how the scientists hypothesise and test, but how the Mathematicians analyse and reveal patterns. In the engaging context of STEM education, students should experience the contribution of a Mathematician. This article will explore five ways that Mathematics can be integrated into STEM projects.
1. Measurement – STEM projects often result in creation of some sort. Whether it is enticing birds to your backyard by building a birdhouse, adapting a recipe to replace an unhealthy ingredient or developing eco friendly packaging to save the planet, their conception and construction require a focus on measurement. Length, height, capacity, volume, area, perimeter, shape, weight and measuring tools can
all become common vocabulary in STEM education. Teach students to plan with detail. The details include estimations
and application of measuring. When evaluating their ideas and models, students should be able to articulate the mathematical reasoning behind their measurements. Trial and error, guess and check, estimation, rounding, scaling and calculations will all be involved. Let them talk like they are real Mathematicians.
2. Data Gathering – STEM projects often involve solving a problem. Quantifying that problem can be key to understanding it. Create opportunities for students to gather data. developing questions, sampling, recording data, sorting data, understanding different types of data and using a variety of measurement devices. This can help students explore situations such as people’s perceptions of refugees, number of electric cars in their community, weight of paper being wasted and recycled, amount of electricity being used or number of people who can use a particular piece of technology. Let students articulate the weight of the problem with their mathematical reasoning to persuade with mathematical proof.
3. Statistical Analysis – Of course, with gathering data comes statistical analysis. STEM projects often present an opportunity to compare. Whether analysing the differences made by applying a new recycling system, comparing efficiency of two interfaces, identifying particular cohorts for which healthy eating needs to be addressed or locating periods of time that students are feeling lonely. Finding patterns in data can be powerful and exciting. When students find these patterns for themselves, the motivation to change the data
or excitement that they have changed the data is an emotive and memorable learning experience. Give students the opportunities to present their findings mathematically using graphs and statistical vocabulary.
4. Coding – STEM projects lend themselves to producing digital outcomes or solving a problem with algorithms. The language of coding requires accurate use of formulae and populating those formulae to achieve a purpose requires high levels of mathematical inquiry and thinking. It may be coding a graphical representation of how a shadow moves over the course of a day, coding a computer to draw regular polygons or animating a backdrop to roll backwards creating the illusion of forward motion of an inanimate object. The mathematical language of coding can include position ,translation, vector, orientation, symmetry and rotation. Students can explore the graphical representations in terms of a four quadrant graph, x and y axis, and integer coordinates. Again, the language of a mathematician can help students articulate their logical and efficient coding predictions, decisions and problem solving in a STEM context.
5. Formulae – As well as the coding context, physics formulae can also appear in STEM projects. Taking a mathematical stance can appear when students manipulate equations or perhaps even experiment to come up with the formulae themselves. Speed, distance, time, power, force, mass, weight and gravity are simple concepts to play with and calculate in STEM projects. Whether the goal is to decrease speed for
safety, improve the braking distance of a bicycle, increase momentum to reduce human input or send a rocket as far into the sky as possible: formulae can inform. Create opportunities for students to discover the power of the formulae in solving real world problems. STEM projects bring relevance to the Mathematics that may only otherwise be explored in the “algebra” chapter of a textbook.
Like usual, I leave you with a challenge. Bring Mathematics to the forefront of integrated STEM education in your classrooms. Don’t let mathematics go unnoticed. Inspire a student who is great at maths by showing them how they can use it in the real world. Similarly, prove to those who are not interested in mathematics that it is indeed purposeful, nay powerful in contexts that may take their interest. Leave your students with a rich mathematical vocabulary which helps them communicate understanding, ideas and rationalisation of their everyday world. Transferring their mathematical thinking and language in a range of contexts is exactly what our future world needs.
