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Essay / Closing the Gap: Mathematics in High School and College...
Research has found a positive correlation between students enrolled in additional STEM courses and higher math achievement (Gottfried, Bozick, Srinivasan , 2014). In addition to improving students' conceptual understanding of mathematical topics, it has been postulated that STEM education helps improve student engagement (Bundick, Quaglia, Corso, Haywood, 2014). While this solution has advantages, it is often difficult to add additional classes to students' schedules, and it is unrealistic for schools to add the funding and teacher support that this solution would require. “Supporters of traditional electives ranging from music science to consumer science fear being squeezed out of the school day as districts, facing tougher state and federal requirements, devote more time and money to basic academic subjects. (Cavanagh, 2006) This article will focus on increasing STEM-based activities within a traditional mathematics curriculum. This will be accomplished by introducing each unit with an investigative laboratory activity that will be integrated throughout the unit's curriculum. Students will be required to write a laboratory report at the end of each unit which will be included in the unit.