Making connections science and mathematics: The MC SAM Project

A major connecting theme across both mathematics and science is proportional reasoning, underpinning many topics in the middle years‟ curriculum, such as scale drawing, surface area, percentages, density, probability, molarity, force and motion, algebra, and fractions. Proportional reasoning refers to the capacity to understand the relationships in proportional situations and to work meaningfully with them (Lesh, Post, & Behr, 1988). For example, determining the better value out of 200 grams for $3 and 250 grams for $4; or understanding why a baby locked in a car on a hot day suffers more than an adult would in the same circumstances, both involve proportional reasoning. In this paper, we describe the MC SAM project, the acronym for „Making Connections in Science and Mathematics‟. The project aims to take a “conscious, systematic and explicit…. structured and goal-oriented” learning by design approach (Kalantzis & Cope, 2004, p. 39) to support the careful design of an integrated curriculum to promote students‟ connected knowledge development across these two disciplines. In this project, researchers and teachers are collaboratively developing, implementing and documenting innovative, relevant and connected learning in mathematics and science, and hence redefining classroom culture as well as redefining curriculum. This paper outlines findings of the project to date, including results of a proportional reasoning pretest that highlight great variance of proportional reasoning in students across Years 5 to 9, and simultaneously underscores the importance of a more systematic and structured approach to promoting proportional reasoning across mathematics and science