Applied Mathematical Modelling in the Physics Problem-Solving Classroom

This paper aims to contribute to the literature on planning and implementing mathematical modelling tasks in the higher education curriculum. Specifically, we propose and discuss a lesson plan carried out within the course of Mathematics Education II - Master’s Degree in Mathematics, to train and qualify students on how to capture the interplay between Physics and Mathematics in the perspective of mathematical modelling and problem-solving. The goal is to make transparent what is meant by modelling by showing how it is possible to develop integrated learning environments beyond the traditional boundaries between subjects both at the subject level and at the level of required pedagogy, illustrating this characterisation with an example regarding a theme that ‘subsumes’ the two disciplines. It is important in the educational training of future teachers to explore ways based on influential theoretical expositions of the concept of interdisciplinarity. This is especially true when examples of didactic transposition are provided where Mathematics and Physics are understood as forms of knowledge that have relationships and differences, which are deeply intertwined and which co-evolve, mutually generating new problems that lead to permeating the labile boundaries between them to generate new knowledge. These examples of didactic transposition, therefore, are rich in interdisciplinarity connections, which show students the relevant aspects of the two disciplines from a historical and epistemological point of view and their connections.