Eating Healthy: Understanding Added Sugar through Proportional Reasoning

Debasmita Basu and Hong B. Nguyen
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Debasmita Basu: Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The New School, New York, NY 10011, USA
Hong B. Nguyen: Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, The New School, New York, NY 10003, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: Research suggests that integrated STEM activities can best support students in developing their mathematical and scientific understanding. On one hand, while science provides mathematics with real-life authentic problems to investigate, mathematics provides science powerful tools to explore those problems. In line with this call, in this study, we designed an integrated lesson at the cross-section of proportional reasoning and added sugar present in food products to explore how added sugar provides students with a meaningful context to engage in proportional reasoning and how proportional reasoning helps students identify the quantity of added sugar present in different food products and provides students with a platform to initiate a conversation around quality of food products. Developed on the theoretical framework of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), this lesson was remotely implemented on three middle school students. The result section highlights the design principle of the lesson that provided students with an opportunity to construct an understanding of both the disciplines through a mutual interaction.

Keywords: proportional reasoning; public health; food nutrition; added sugar; teaching and learning of mathematics and science; STEM education; integrated curriculum (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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