Eureka!

Something has been bugging me for almost a year now. Why do my students not see the connection between Math and Science? A possible answer has occurred to me.

Students are not taught to connect the content of one class with another. Starting with elementary school, they are taught to compartmentalize - it's now time for math, OR science, OR social studies. There is little overlapping of concepts from one area to another.

I also discovered that my 7th grade students have not seen math in science until now. Never! We have started Physics, (and this is the first time they have encountered Physics), so now they see math taught in what should be a science class. How is it that kids do not get exposed to physics at an earlier age? They are taught all the "fuzzy" stuff - animals, volcanoes, etc. Nothing that requires math. At the last science staff meeting, I heard that many elementary teachers (who teach all subjects) are not comfortable with the science topics, so do not focus as much time for science as for, say, reading. Hmm.

I have already started to notice that many of my "good" students, especially girls are starting to loose interest in science - there is just too much math. And that brings back old demons.

I was under the impression that we loose students, especially girls, in middle school, and I've found that to be only partially correct. We really start to loose them in the elementary grades by not exposing them to the interconnectedness of their classes, and then springing physics on them at an age when most students are undergoing physical changes and struggling with how they look, etc.

Since so much teaching is geared to testing, there would need to be a revamp of the system to make any real and lasting change.