06134920

a

2013a.00796 Osmon, Peter Modelling as a driver for the level-3 curriculum. Smith, C. (ed.), Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM). Vol. 32, No. 1. Proceedings of the day conference, University of Manchester, UK, March 3, 2012. London: British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM). 37-42 (2012). 2012 London: British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) EN M10 B70 D30 level-3 curriculum group-project model-making application domain discrete mathematics pure mathematics Summary: A previous paper identified the potential learning gains from substituting group-project model-making for traditional applied mathematics at level-3. In this paper the author investigates the feasibility of this change by considering a set of recently published project proposals. These range over various application domains and mathematics topics. The authors suggests subjective criteria for evaluating potential projects from the likely viewpoints of learners and teachers and learners' knowledge of a project's application domain and the appropriate mathematics as objective success criteria. It follows that, except where the application domain is familiar to mathematics students, projects will have to be interdisciplinary -- which generally seems impractical. But in the application domain that is familiar to all students -- that of twenty-first century everyday life -- the mathematics (IT and probability) is increasingly discrete whereas the curriculum still emphasises the mathematics of the continuum -- surely evidence of how out of date it has become. The remedy might be for model-making to determine the pure mathematics in the curriculum.