Teachers Resources - Resources for modern Teaching

Integrating Math With Other Subjects
By Gisele Glosser

There are many interdisciplinary projects that involve math and other subject areas. It is just a matter of finding the ideas that work for you and your class. From my experience, most students relish the idea of connecting math to other topics. Here are some of my ideas that you may find useful for grades 4 through 8.

Math and Science:

The math teacher can teach students about exponential notation. Once students become proficient in reading and writing numbers in exponential form, and in converting numbers between exponential form, factor form, and standard form, they can apply this knowledge to topics in science. For example, they can write the distance between the sun and each planet using scientific notation. For advanced students, you can teach them about negative exponents and then look at the half-life of certain radioactive elements, or at the size of bacteria and viruses.

Math and Social Studies:

After teaching a unit on how to read, interpret, and draw graphs, you can have your students apply these skills to topics in Social Studies. For example, they can draw bar graphs to compare the Population, Per Capita Income, and Population Density of various countries.

Math and Writing:

One of the things stressed by standardized tests is the ability to answer open-ended questions. Typically, students are asked to provide written explanations.
This tests their ability to express their mathematical ideas in written form.

To help them prepare for these types of questions, I do a math project that involves writing. I ask students to answer several open-ended questions using full sentences. The Math Teacher can grade students based on the mathematical correctness of their responses. The Language Arts or English Teacher can grade them on spelling and grammar. Some sample questions are provided below from topics in Number Theory and Percent.

1. Is 27 prime or composite? Explain your answer.
2. Is 25 the same as 2 x 5? Explain why or why not.
3. Name 4 numbers that are factors of 24. Explain your answer.
4. Is 25% of 80 the same as 80% of 25? Explain your answer.
5. If 29 equals 512, then find 210 with only one multiplication. Explain your answer.

Math and Sports:

Students can compute the percent win-loss of games played by their favorite sports teams. They can find data on teams in their school, or they can find data for professional teams online and in the newspapers. You can bring this activity into the computer lab by placing all the data in a spreadsheet. A formula can be used to compute the percent win-loss.

Math and Computers:

Students can examine the binary number system. They can look at the relationship between base 2 numbers and how computer circuitry was developed. Round-off error can be discussed as it applies to repeating decimals. Both the computer and the calculator can store only a finite number of digits, thus compromising precision of repeating decimals.

For articles on math education, visit:
http://www.mathgoodies.com/articles/

Traditionally, math has been a rote subject that is taught without connections to other subjects. Since math is an exact science, we tend to focus on the correctness of answers. Engaging students in the interdisciplinary projects listed above will allow them to see that math is useful subject that is not isolated from other things in our world. You may even find that integrating math with other subjects can save time in the classroom.