Students should have many opportunities to observe the interaction of mathematics with other school subjects and with everyday society. To accomplish this, mathematics teachers must seek and gain the active participa-tion of teachers of other disciplines in exploring mathematical ideas through problems that arise in their classes. Curriculum materials can foster an attitude in students that will encourage them to look for connections, but teachers must also look for opportunities to help students make mathematical connections. As students in grades 5-8 become aware of the world around them, probability and statistics become increasingly important connections between the real world and the mathematics classroom. Weather forecasting, scientific experiments, advertising claims, chance events, and economic trends are but a few of the areas in which students can investigate the role of mathematics in our society.
Statistics offer students insights into problems of social equity.
Perspective, proportion, and the golden ratio are ways of learning mathematics in the context of art and design. Whatever the context, a vital role of mathematics education is to instill in students an attitude of inquiry and investigation and a sensitivity to the many interrelationships between formal mathematics and the real world.