Maths In Science Class

In my experience, students embark on Chemistry A level or BTEC courses unaware of how Maths will influence their progress. Highly-numerate students (those with GCSE grade B or better in Maths) fare much better when it comes to performing calculations in Chemistry. My approach as a tutor and part-time teacher is to embed numeracy into every session to make sure that calculations do not become a headache during the course. Students taking A level Maths do not do much numeracy, instead they begin their long journey towards understanding calculus, which has nothing to do with calculations.

Good examples are : calculating moles of materials, pH of solutions using log scales, manipulating very large numbers like the Avagadro constant 6.023x10^23. Using exponents properly is a big problem for most students, even the brightest ones. The pressure-volume-temperature relationships are another headache, often handling variables that show inverse relationships. Also what on Earth are exponentials, where do they come from and why use them? How do we handle errors in calculations is a common theme , how do these compound and what experimental factors contribute to these. None of the above issues have anything to do with Chemistry specifically, the same Maths issues pop up in every science class. In my view this is because numeracy is taught to GCSE then disappears leaving students to practice in their own time. On a Lighter note, some of my students proudly announced to me that they were going to Uni to read Biology and Medical Sciences, wherein they had left Maths behind them thank The Lord! Knowing more than a few population specialists in my time, I burst this bubble by informing these my best students what a shock they had in store with the huge step up in numeracy they were going to face in the Biology world!

In summary, in my view teaching numeracy in Chemistry is vital and just requires extensive practice, it is my view that as tutors we should keep a special eye on numeracy and keep students on their toes with it