Back to NCTM San Diego: Interdisciplinary Math

This is the summary of a presentation given at the 74th Annual NCTM Meeting, 25-28 April 1996, San Diego, CA.

Washington MESA (Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement) is developing middle school curriculum units which integrate concepts within mathematics and make connections to topics in science while introducing relevant career opportunities. In this workshop, participants develop the concepts of surface area and volume using a cereal box as a model of a rectangular solid. They redesign their cereal boxes to explore the concept of minimum surface area for maximum volume. The current environmental issues of waste reduction are thoroughly addressed and information is presented which highlight career aspects of a packaging engineer.

For more information on this project, see the MESA web site.

Christine V. Johnson (University of Washington, Seattle, WA)