New Perspectives in Science Education

The Spanish curriculum [1] for School Science establishes some objectives related to the development of various scientific practices: raising problems, formulating hypotheses, constructing models, designing resolution strategies, analysing results, etc. Furthermore, it suggests the convenience of proposing relevant contexts from a personal and global perspective (environment, frontiers of science and technology, health and disease, etc.), in order to show the impact of these disciplines in social development. In addition, the evaluation criteria of School Mathematics, the main focus of this work, include use of problem-solving strategies and generalisation of mathematical research, application of mathematisation processes in everyday contexts, and assessment of modelling as a tool for problem solving, being aware of its effectiveness and limitations. Nevertheless, and despite this curricular development, Spanish students scored below the OECD average in Mathematics and Science in PISA 2018 [2]. In this contribution, we present a descriptive analysis of the obstacles faced by 16–17-year-old students when dealing with a contextualised problem about growth of bacteria and how two drugs can help to partially eliminate them. In addition, we analyse the potential of a teaching and learning strategy based on modelling, mainly mathematical, to integrate knowledge about different disciplines [3,4]. The problem allowed students to work on a variety of concepts and procedures: bacteria and viruses, infection models, numerical successions, resolution of logarithmic and exponential equations, graphic representation of functions, etc. During the development of the activity, several intermediate questions were posed to facilitate its understanding and interpretation, delimiting and structuring the problem. The use of the GeoGebra software was also considered.

Keywords: STEM, problem solving, mathematical modelling. 

References:

1. BOE (2015). Real Decreto 1105/2014, de 26 de diciembre, por el que se establece el currículo básico de la Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y del Bachillerato. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Madrid (3 de enero de 2015), 169-546.
2. INEE (2019). PISA 2018. Programa para la Evaluación Internacional de los Estudiantes. Informe español. Madrid: Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional.
3. Búa, J. B., Fernández-Blanco, T., & Salinas, M. (2015). Una modelización matemática como medio de detección de obstáculos y dificultades de los alumnos sobre el concepto de función: alargamiento de un muelle sometido a un peso. Educación matemática, 27(1), 91-122.
4. Dorado, I., & Díaz, J. L. (2014). La matemática como herramienta de modelización para dar respuesta a situaciones problema. En Lestón, P. (Ed.), Acta Latinoamericana de Matemática Educativa (pp. 1151-1159). México, DF: Comité Latinoamericano de Matemática Educativa.