We describe our team-taught, interdisciplinary course "Numb3rs in Lett3rs & Fi1ms: Mathematics in Literature and Cinema," which explores mathematics in the context of modern literature and cinema. Our goal with this course is to advance collaborations between mathematics and the written/theatre-based creative arts.

An enrichment program in literature for gifted sixth graders is discussed. It is explained that the course lasts for one year and meets for one hour three days a week. The nature and rationale of the course topics (biography, realistic fiction, poetry, and tragedy) are explored. (PHR)

Describes a high school course in American fiction in which students read an excerpt from a work of literature, watch the film adaptation of the work, and study both from a particular literary standpoint. Notes that such an approach appeals to reluctant readers. (RS)

A reading enrichment component of a secondary school social studies curriculum involves students in reading historical novels, biographies, and short stories which represent good literature and which portray other times, places, and peoples. Objectives are to reinforce social studies content and to improve reading skills. A bibliography is…

Describes the teaching strategies used in a university summer study trip to England to investigate British primary- and preprimary-education practices. Strategies include readings, meetings, questions, observations, journals, and a culminating project. Focuses on the strategy of searching for "Miss Read," the pen name of Dora Saint, an…

How fiction is used in a college-level political science seminar to teach about democratic decision making and U.S. politics is described. The fiction used is clustered around the following topics: community-level decisions, limits to consensus, group values and politics, acquiring elected offices and trying to keep them, and public bureaucracies.…

An instructor of an adolescent literature course wanted to give the students an opportunity to study some novels not specifically written for an adolescent audience. Examples of such novels were: Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," and Jamaica Kincaid's "Annie John." Including…

A US history activity which generated excitement and enhanced class discussion involved students in writing each other letters as imaginary correspondents living through the period under study. Follow-up activities included displaying letters on bulletin boards, reading correspondence aloud in class, a debate, and a class-written history play. (RM)

A discussion of the role of fiction in a college level anthropology course is divided into two sections. The first section describes several advantages of using fiction rather than a text to teach anthropology. Teacher and students share more or less equally in the teaching process with this approach. The teacher is no longer an authority on a…

In a team-taught course that uses political novels and films, the concept of politics becomes more understandable to the students. Three different instructors representing political science, English, and film bring expertise to the course that is not usually possible for a single instructor. (Author/MLW)

Describes an interdisciplinary program consisting of two courses. The first course deals with the chemistry of drugs and poisons; the second course focuses on fictional works in which these drugs and poisons are central to the plots. (SK)