Promoting mathematics teaching with real life scenarios in the context of COVID-19 pandemic

Maria Cristina Costa (1) , António Domingos (2)

1 Instituto Politécnico de Tomar
2 FCT NOVA - Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia = School of Science & Technology

STEM education provides students with 21st century skills considered critical to correspond to the increasing challenges of the real world, and to face an increasing demand for specialized STEM labor. However, there are several issues related to skills shortages in STEM fields, namely related to mathematics. In this regard, it is crucial to highlight the role of the M in STEM in order to innovate and improve the teaching of mathematics. This paper presents an integrated approach of STEM education highlighting the role of mathematics to understand a real-world problem in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. With a qualitative methodology and based on a case study, this research shows mathematical tasks to raise awareness of students of how the virus spreads and to understand the need for isolation measures, among others. Based on this research it is recommended to resort to mathematical tasks based on real world scenarios to promote meaningful learning in students.

Mots clés: STEM education; mathematics education; hands-on; COVID-19 pandemic

Domaines: Mathématiques [math]

Maria Cristina Costa, António Domingos. Promoting mathematics teaching with real life scenarios in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. Twelfth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (CERME12), Feb 2022, Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. ⟨hal-03745362⟩