By Anne Jolly
Excited and inspired about the subjects they teach, math and science educators ideally want their classrooms to dive into real-world challenges. But they’re faced with the predictable realities of the school day when designing their curriculum. Each year, students seem to lose interest as the subjects become more difficult and abstract. “And what use is this anyway?” students. Why should they learn it?
Though educators know that real-world application would help students engage more fully with the subjects and understand the vital role in solving real problems, they’re overwhelmed by how to make this happen. Just a few of their obstacles:
- “My school system has an obsessive focus on student testing, and that’s all they want me to teach toward – test objectives, test objectives, test objectives.”