Activities To Teach Mathematics in the Context of Environmental Studies.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards" recommends that mathematical connections be made between mathematics and other disciplines. This book presents 35 activities for middle school students that integrate the teaching of mathematical concepts with environmental concepts. An introduction discusses the need for mathematical connections and provides the rationale for utilizing environmental studies as a context from which to learn mathematics. Each activity provides a reference for its source, the NCTM standards for middle school mathematics addressed by the activity, student objectives, background information, materials needed, procedures, methods for closure, and evaluation suggestions. The activities are grouped according to the following environmental concepts: (1) energy and natural resources; (2) plants and animals; (3) population description and growth; (4) solid waste disposal; (5) transportation; (6) water resources; and (7) weather and air. An index classifies the activities according to the NCTM Standards for grades 5-8. The eight curriculum standards addressed are: computation and estimation; patterns and function; algebra; statistics; probability; geometry; measurement; and number and number relationships. General standards addressed by the activities are problem solving, mathematical connections, reasoning, and mathematical communication. A summary discusses how the activities were chosen and encourages teachers to let students expand the context of the activities themselves by making the activities more relevant to local issues. (MDH)