A Bird Beak Data Buffet: Integrating math to enhance student learning about adaptations

This article reports on an interdisciplinary lesson completed with our elementary preservice teachers, demonstrating how to integrate mathematical concepts easily and effectively into 5E and 3D science lessons. We took a common activity used to teach adaptations, the bird beak lab, and modified it to integrate mathematical concepts like bar graphs and data analysis. While this interdisciplinary lesson targets third-grade science and mathematics standards, it also shows how mathematical concepts can be meaningfully integrated into any common science investigation so students can develop conceptual understandings, solve problems, and make sense of their world as science and mathematics thinkers. In addition to sharing the interdisciplinary lesson, we report on how our preservice teachers benefited from this lesson by prompting them to plan integrated science lessons across disciplines. The preservice teachers also shared how the authentic learning experience allows students to use their data to make data analysis more meaningful rather than examining teacher-provided data in isolated mathematics settings. Recommendations are shared for how teachers can develop similar interdisciplinary lessons that encourage students to make sense of observations using data collected during scientific investigations.