Recent changes to the Key Stage 3 curriculum, particularly in Science and Mathematics, have created new opportunities to explore the potential for cross-curricular work. No subject is situated in isolation and skills learnt within one area are transferable to another. However often these links are not made explicit to learners and often science teachers knowledge of the mathematical curriculum is limited. Outside the classroom subject boundaries are more easily blurred as ‘everyday’ examples can be considered from multiple perspectives.
The plug-ins offered in the majority of the activities have mathematical alternative entry points or end points. Through a science lesson the mathematics can be explicitly introduced at the beginning or used as an extension. Alternatively mathematics and science teachers might teach the same activity in parallel. Pupils would experience how the same object might be understood from different subject fields.