Students in Kristen Gonsoir鈥檚 classroom at Groton Area High School in Groton, S.D., spend a lot of time solving equations together.
Early this school year, they passed almost an entire period working in groups on a particularly tricky word problem: If someone has a garden 10 feet by 10 feet, divided into three plots, how many kilograms of fertilizer would they need for each plot, applying fertilizer at a concentration of 1,000 pounds per acre?
Gonsoir walked around from group to group, listening in on students鈥� conversations and reviewing their calculations to see where she had to shore up misunderstandings.
But despite all of the math going on in her room, Gonsoir isn鈥檛 a math teacher. She teaches science. The word problem was a way for them to practice the skills they鈥檇 need to make conversions between different components involved in chemical reactions.
鈥淐hemistry is, as the kids say, just another math class,鈥� said Gonsoir.
Math has always been a core part of science, especially in high school chemistry and physics鈥攕o much so that a correlation between students鈥� high school math abilities and their performance in college science classes. More recently, the Next Generation Science Standards, first unveiled in 2013, emphasized quantitative reasoning and data analysis. The standards have been adopted by 20 states and the District of Columbia.
But some high school teachers say that many of their students come into science classes unprepared to handle the math demands the subject requires of them.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e kind of forgotten the really, really basic things from algebra,鈥� said Lisa Kern, a chemistry and environmental science teacher at Avon High School outside of Indianapolis.
The gaps in math knowledge that students arrive with in high school may be especially wide now, as multiple studies of student achievement show lagging middle school achievement.
Even so, teachers say, science curricula don鈥檛 often build in time or resources to reinforce basic math concepts鈥攁nd it鈥檚 usually logistically difficult to facilitate collaboration between high school math and science departments.
Education Week spoke with science 糖心动漫vlog for their tips on how to embed math practice into their classrooms and align their math teaching to that of the math teachers in their district. Read on for four ways that 糖心动漫vlog said they approached these challenges.
1. Model math frequently
Because students come into class with different levels of math skill, Kern, the Indianapolis teacher, explicitly reteaches some concepts from the beginning.
When she introduces the formula for density鈥攄ensity equals mass divided by volume, or d=m/v鈥攕he shows students how to cross-multiply. During the course of the unit, she might show a worked example of a problem or two on the board every day.
Dylan Fedell, a science teacher at Palisades High School in Kintersville, Penn., reteaches geometry concepts in his physics classes, when explaining how forces act on moving objects.
鈥淚 find myself teaching鈥擨 don鈥檛 want to say from scratch; I鈥檓 not doing any derivations鈥攂ut I鈥檓 explaining right triangles, how we鈥檙e labeling them,鈥� he said.
It鈥檚 not that students never learned the geometry concepts, but they need a teacher to help them make the connection that the same skills apply in science, too, Fedell said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just two different mindsets,鈥� he said. 鈥淯nless you actively work to bring them together, it鈥檚 not going to happen.鈥�
2. Work on students鈥� conceptual understanding of mathematical relationships
In chemistry, students might memorize a formula for, for example, converting grams to moles鈥攖wo different measurements of mass.
But if they don鈥檛 understand the process the formula represents, they鈥檙e likely to use it incorrectly at some point, said Gonsoir, the South Dakota teacher.
To try to build that conceptual understanding, Gonsoir assigns lots of problems that require students to convert quantities鈥攍ike the gardening problem at the beginning of this year, which asked students to translate kilograms to pounds and feet to acres.
鈥淭he thing I start the year with is, 鈥業 know a lot of you aren鈥檛 going to be chemists. No one鈥檚 going to walk up to you and say, how many grams are in a molar solution of 5% of sodium chloride?鈥欌�� said Gonsoir. 鈥淏ut I do say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e going to have to solve problems, and chemistry gives you a good base for problem-solving.鈥欌��
3. Teach math language
Explicitly teaching math vocabulary in science has helped her students grasp concepts more easily, said Jill Christman, a chemistry teacher at Canyon del Oro High School in Oro Valley, Ariz.
She has worked with science teachers across the department so that the terms 糖心动漫vlog use to describe, for example, how to make a scale on a graph, are the same in biology classes and chemistry classes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really helped our students鈥攊t鈥檚 actually kind of amazing,鈥� Christman said.
Looking forward, she鈥檇 like to work with the math department, too, to see if there are other terms that teachers across subjects could use consistently.
If students aren鈥檛 making the connection between some of the formulas they鈥檙e using in both math and science, Christman said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 something we鈥檙e missing as 糖心动漫vlog.鈥�
4. Seek out cross-disciplinary professional development
When she asks students to solve problems, Gonsoir often uses techniques that she learned from sitting in on math professional development鈥攕omething she does frequently.
She groups students and asks them to work on the problems at mounted whiteboards throughout the room, a technique from Building Thinking Classrooms, a book of suggestions for teaching practices in math.
Having students talking in groups, and being able to see their problem-solving approaches clearly, makes it easier to identify when students have misunderstandings and correct them quickly, Gonsoir said.
Christman, in Arizona, regularly checks in with the math department to get a better sense of what skills students already have. 鈥淎 lot it鈥檚 very informal,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檒l have conversations like, 鈥業鈥檒l be using slope this week in my class鈥攁t what point did the students learn slope?鈥欌��
Still, it can be hard for teachers to find this kind of collaboration time, or for districts to intentionally schedule it, said Dave Celotto, the director of program design and innovation at the National Math and Science Initiative, a nonprofit professional development provider.
Among the organization鈥檚 offerings is 鈥渧ertical team training鈥濃�攁n option in which math and science teachers across several grade levels learn about skill progressions together.
A PD session might focus on a physical science concept that comes up in 7th grade, for instance, and the prealgebra concepts that students learn in earlier grades that they would need to understand the 7th grade content, Celotto said.
This gets teachers across disciplines into this mindset: 鈥淗ow might we do this better, so that we can support what you鈥檙e doing?鈥�
