- Expanding student understanding across disciplines
- Enhancing communication skills
- Creating life-long learners
Let's look at some examples of how this can be done!
This book details what would happen across the world if humans disappeared today. It goes into detail about many different systems and ideas that would work perfectly in any classroom.
Just pick a chapter for your students to read that relate to the topic at hand and they are learning through literature.
For example, my favorite chapter was one on polymers. This chapter could be used to help detail to students the process of degradation as well as the long lasting impact that our individual actions have on the rest of the world.
Take one of those crazy happenings and figure out the science behind it.
One example of this that I have done is the science behind the Salem Witch Trials.
Students look at data of mass hysteria, ergot poisoning, and recorded symptoms of the people living in Salem. Given this data, they are to conclude what caused the actions and symptoms behind the Salem Witch Trials.
I'm talking about physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, etc.
Connecting the different subject is easy because of their natural connectedness to each other!
When studying the effects and history of global warming in geology, the chemistry, biology, and ecology behind these movements or as a result of these movements can also discussed.
- Chemistry:
- Students can use data of different levels of various elements in the atmosphere to determine their relationship to global warming
- Students can look at the structures of different molecules in the atmosphere to see why some break down better than others
- Ecology:
- Students can look at plant and animal effects of global warming throughout history. Including which ones thrive and which ones die out.
- Biology:
- Students can look at the evolution of organisms for a changing environment.