Using Environmental Science to Bridge Mathematics and the Sciences

Environmental issues can provide an excellent way to connect mathematics with the sciences. At Florida Atlantic University’s Honors College, faculty are working together to build an interdisciplinary curriculum for lower-division mathematics, biology, chemistry and environmental science. Traditional calculus and statistics courses introduce environmental materials, some adapted from outside sources and some developed through collaboration between mathematicians and scientists in the college. Many of these materials are small projects, designed for students to explore collaboratively, with the assistance of a graphing calculator, computer algebra system, or statistical software. Complementing the mathematics program, lower-division science courses bring science and mathematics out of the classroom and into the community, using local ponds, lakes, forests and greenways as science laboratories. Student and faculty teams collect data on the water quality in dozens of area ponds, the diversity of wildlife in more than 250 acres of nearby preserves, and the impact of a growing population on the environment. They then bring their studies back to the classroom and use mathematics and statistics to analyze and model their data. A series of three new “links” – one-credit courses that are team-taught by scientists and mathematicians – focus on the analysis of student-collected data using increasingly sophisticated tools. The project is supported by a National Science Foundation grant. The project goals are for students to understand the interdependence of mathematics and the natural sciences, and to be able to apply what they learn in the classroom to hands-on scientific studies. For both faculty and students, the project aims to integrate teaching, learning and research in a holistic form of scholarship. Preliminary data were collected in the fall of 2001, and a first assessment of the project’s goals will be completed in the late spring of 2002.