2012 Volume 53 Issue 1-2 Pages 22-35
There is the rich relation between natural science and mathematics, as well as the relation between biology, physics, chemistry, and earth science. Therefore, the knowledge, methods, and ideas of mathematics and the other natural science are necessary to understand biology more completely. In science education, however, the relationship between biology, mathematics, and the other natural science is not so much recognized. Science and mathematics teachers-in-training should recognize the relationship, and should realize the necessity of learning mathematics and all subjects of natural science. In this study, the sound source localization behavior of the barn owl was used as teaching material in a biological lesson for science and mathematics teachers-in-training to realize the necessity of mathematics and physics. They thought the physical properties of sound, used mathematical ideas such as Cartesian coordinate system, velocity formula, isosceles triangle, and knew the interaural time difference of sound. Next, they knew that the sound source give the same interaural time difference if it located at any point on a hyperbola, which they already studied at their high school days, and understood that the owl turn the face toward the direction of the asymptote of the hyperbola. The number of science and mathematics teachers-in-training who answered that mathematics and physics are necessary to understand biology increased after this biological lesson. The result indicates that the sound source localization behavior of the barn owl is the useful teaching material.
