Abstract:

The contextual aspect of mathematical modeling might provide an opportunity to address different disciplines in solving a real-life problem. Interdisciplinary Mathematical Modeling (IMM) can be expressed as a reinterpretation of mathematical modeling with an interdisciplinary dimension. The IMM approach focuses on integrating at least two different disciplines, such as mathematics and science, to solve real-life problems. For this purpose, this study aims to examine middle school students' IMM skills. In total, six IMM activities were implemented in two 8 grade middle school classrooms. The data consisted of student solution papers, video and audio recordings of the implications, and researcher notes from classrooms. To analyze the data IMM Skill Assessment Rubric developed by researchers and were coded by using the content analysis method. The results showed that students experience some difficulties arising from the nature of the IMM activities. In the modeling process, students were successful at the level of understanding the problem, while had difficulties at the level of evaluation. The students' IMM skills were affected by their problem-solving habits as well as their knowledge of mathematics and science concepts that required to solve the problem. The results also showed that students' IMM kills improved significantly during the implication process. The results suggest that the necessity of giving more place to modeling activities in teaching mathematics.