There is no opportunity for the students to pursue mathematical concepts. The mathematics is not clearly visible, except as a collection of skills needed to accomplish the matter at hand. I feel uneasy because what I have seen lets the mathematics go. When I first gave my biology students a graph of the growth of a puppy vs. time, using m and t for mass and time, they asked me whether they could put x and y there. Biologists complain that students don't know straight lines when they use m and t instead of x and y .
Students compartmentalize their learning so that mathematics is one thing, science something else.
If it's math, it must be x and y , and can't have anything to do with life or society. Mathematics is not relevant to what they do, so they forget it the moment they walk out the classroom door. R. I agree. Interdisciplinary issues do not motivate mathematics faculty. Other teachers may be motivated to do this, but mathematics is not pushing the envelope.