Among the themes that have been central to mathematics education dur- ing the last 30 years are those of mathematical modelling and applications of mathematics to extra-mathematical fields. More generally we refer to these as relations between mathematics and the extra-mathematical world (some- times also called the -real world-) or preferably, according to Henry PoUak, the -rest of the world-. That applications and modelling have been important themes in mathematics education can be inferred from the wealth of litera- ture on these topics, including material generated from a multitude of na-...