T.C. Roekle is a highly respected educator who has solid leadership experience with a focus on innovative strategies to raise student and staff performance at the building and district level. T.C. is a member of the National Speakers Association; she has addressed thousands of educators at State and National Education Conferences, Technology Conferences and school communities.
According to a new study of 8,474 students, taking introductory science at 63 U.S. Colleges and Universities, students who took more math in high school did better in all types of college science. Students who took high school science courses such as chemistry or physics improved college performance only in those specific subject areas.
Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer, said in his Thursday, July 26, 2007 article “Want to Be Good at Science? Math Is Key”, describes the report published by Philip M. Sadler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Robert H. Tai of the University of Virginia in July’s edition of Science Journal.
Click Here To Read The Article
Science educators often take joy in debating the effect of the order in which students take science courses throughout their high school career. Some science teachers argue that physics should be taught earlier because it will help students understand the other two science areas; other teachers say having chemistry first will help in learning biology. But, the 1890’s biology tends to come first, followed by chemistry and then physics.
Ask Yourself: Which of these arguments would I support?
Then read the article and find out…neither was the case.
Schmid quotes the researchers: "I was surprised," Sadler said in a telephone interview. "I had a very open mind about whether this kind of early preparation would pay off." "The most important thing for high school science teachers is to make sure there is lots of math in whatever science course they teach," Sadler said. "Math is so important in college science."
I believe the real “informational nugget” here is the idea that science teachers purposefully integrate math into their content and likewise, math teachers view their content with a critical eye on science. Here is where acceleration of learning could take place in both subject areas.
Ask Yourself: Could we create an opportunity for a team of science and math teachers to develop “team teaching” episodes, lessons, or full units of study, which would help our students learn to integrate their knowledge of science and math?
Do you believe students would learn more? Would we?
http://www.sciencemag.org
Related stories on Math studies:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/17/AR2006101701298.html
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2 comments:
Hi,
I blogged about this same subject a few days ago, although I haven't had the time to read the complete study.
I feel the whole idea behind math being helpful in science and all studies is that math is a foundation of analytical thought. It teaches our students to think properly to make informed decisions in other topics and studies.
Math is fun, if it's taught correctly. If students like math, then they seem to do better overall. In Florida, the FCAT statistics points out that the students who do well in math tend to do better in reading and writing. Science is now part of the FCAT and I'm looking forward to seeing the statistics next year.
Ray Ebersole
http://edutechation.wordpress.com
Hi Ray,
Thanks for your insight.
Yes, Math is fun if taught correctly, and teaches students to transfer analytical thought to other areas of life and learning. As a principal, I was able to watch creative and powerful lessons by master teachers who knew how to "think out loud" for their students, helping them to build this capacity. Great Stuff!
I thought you might be interested in the transcript of a live Web chat, that took place on July 25th, with a panel of math education experts about the state of math standards around the country, and what's being done to increase rigor and raise student achievement in the subject.
Guests:
• Francis M. "Skip" Fennell, the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics;
• Tom Loveless, a senior scholar at the Brookings Institution; and
• Sean Cavanagh, a staff writer for EDUCATION WEEK.
Here is the link to the transcript:
http://www.edweek.org/chat/transcript_07_25_2007.html
Thanks for Writing,
T.C.
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