Authentic Application Examples in Math Lectures through Peer Teaching

Engineering students often miss the connection between mathematics and the engineering disciplines. One solution to this problem is to integrate application examples into the math lectures. However, it is challenging for mathematicians to find adequate applications and to present them in an authentic manner. We describe a concept of integrating application examples through peer teaching: A student who has already completed the mathematics course is involved in the preparation and presentation of such examples. As a result, the examples are very authentic since they are developed and presented by a person knowing the applications, the learners’ motivation is high due to peer teaching, and the new material is high-quality owing to the supervision by the lecturer. Surveys conducted for each application example reveal that the concept is well accepted. The paper describes the steps in the development of application examples of different length and mathematical depth and gives recommendations on how to implement the concept successfully into math lectures.