Connecting Mathematics and Science in Primary School STEM Education: Modeling the Population Growth of Species

Genaro de Gamboa, Edelmira Badillo, Digna Couso and Conxita Márquez
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Genaro de Gamboa: Departament de Didàctica de les Ciències Experimentals i la Matemàtica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Edelmira Badillo: Departament de Didàctica de les Ciències Experimentals i la Matemàtica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Digna Couso: Departament de Didàctica de les Ciències Experimentals i la Matemàtica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain
Conxita Márquez: Departament de Didàctica de les Ciències Experimentals i la Matemàtica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain

Mathematics, 2021, vol. 9, issue 19, 1-22

Abstract: In this research, we explored the potential of using a research-based teaching and learning sequence to promote pupils’ engagement in practices that are coherent with those of real world mathematical and scientific activity. This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematis) sequence was designed and implemented by pre-service teachers and science and mathematics education researchers with the aim of modeling the growth of a real population of rabbits. Results show explicit evidence of pupils’ engagement in relevant mathematical and scientific practices, as well as detailed descriptions of mathematical connections that emerged from those practices. We discuss how these practices and connections allowed the progressive construction of models, and the implications that this proposal may have for STEM task design and for the analysis of extra-mathematical connections.

Keywords: connections; Fibonacci series; mathematical practices; scientific practices; STEM (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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