GEOSCIENCE APPLICATIONS IN AN ADVANCED MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM

Changes at the state and national level in mathematics expectations for high school have left mathematics teachers interested in integrating math applications from sciences feeling pressed for time and materials. With higher mathematics being taught at an earlier grade level, students would benefit from more concrete applications. The geosciences have a wealth of mathematical applications that teachers can use to supplement advanced mathematics courses without conceptual prerequisite sciences.

Many educators have been taking steps back toward teacher centered learning in an attempt to cover as many concepts as possible as quickly as possible. Applying geosciences concepts to a rigorous mathematical setting has allowed students at the Mecosta Osceola Math Science Center to apply abstract mathematical modeling techniques to real-world settings. Student centered projects and speakers from industrial and environmental engineering firms keep the students from asking the question "When will we ever use this stuff?"

The capacity to apply mathematical skills to real world settings has the potential to increase the ability for all students to be successful in future formal science classes. With the emphasis on No Child Left Behind, school districts will need to offer relevant and rigorous mathematics to students that may lack intrinsic motivation to tolerate the discipline of pure mathematics. Geoscience topics appropriate for advanced mathematics classes are 1) Astronomy 2) Surveying 3) Mining/Geology exploration and 4) Hurricane tracking, 5) Seismology, and 6) Radioactive dating.