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Using mathematical concepts and representations to describe physical phenomena is important in physics, even for high school students. Literature however shows that combining physics and mathematics is challenging for students and therefore, the study of student difficulties linking both fields is a hot topic in Physics Education Research.
The newly designed integrated STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) curriculum for secondary education developed in the STEM@school project in Flanders (Belgium), explicitly aims to better link concepts from all STEM fields. In the context of that project, we studied different aspects of student ability to connect concepts from physics and mathematics.
In a first study, we looked at student representational fluency in physics and mathematics on the specific topic of the uniform linear motion in physics and linear function problems in mathematics: students had to link different representations of linear relationships (table, graph, formula) in questions on 1D kinematics or linear functions.
A second study dealt with student understanding of concepts related to linear relations again in the context of physics (uniform linear motion) and mathematics. Whereas the first study puts more emphasis on translation between different representations, the second one mainly deals with particular aspects like slope and y-intercept of linear functions in physics and mathematics.
The results show that it is not at all trivial for students to link mathematics and physics, and that we cannot simply assume that students can apply topics that have been taught in the mathematics class in a physics context. It seems that explicitly pointing students at the specific use of mathematical concepts in physics is needed.
In the presentation, we will both sketch the context of the STEM@school project and the main findings of both studies.
CERN Physics Education Research Team