If a liberal arts education should prepare our students to participate in a meaningful way in democracy, what does that mean for how we design our courses across disciplines? In this paper, I first address the question: who should teach democratic skills? Using an upper-level course in Canadian politics, I then illustrate how to explicitly…

A school's curriculum can appear unrelated, fragmented, or somewhat disjointed if not done with an end in mind. This fragmentation or disjointedness often affects students and their views of the experiences being given them in school. Various curriculum-integration techniques, however, can be used to help make the big picture more understandable…

Provides a set of teaching activities for a mini-unit on pirates. Urges the use of such activities as a means of stimulating student interest in determining the difference between fact and myth. Presents an interdisciplinary approach which reinforces skills ranging from geography to creative writing. (KO)

Describes a middle school mathematics project that incorporated the adult mathematics concepts of school finance. Discusses the lesson plans; the goal of teaching students to make, use, and understand frequency tables; and teacher notes on the use of a relevant, complex problem context. (JPB)

Looks at the educational philosophy and goals of integrated thematic instruction (ITI) as used in the daily activity of a fifth-grade classroom. Shows how ITI employs research on how the human brain learns to provide students with a learning environment and an integrated curriculum that provides each student with multiple conduits of formative…

Adopting an interdisciplinary, story-centered approach, this book suggests new ways for elementary school students to study the ancient world. The book focuses on "The Odyssey," approaching the epic poem by having students create their own rough cartoons, vivid murals, and elaborate dioramas of Greek culture. The book suggests class…

Described are some ideas for using photography in the elementary classroom. Justification for using photography in the classroom includes student interaction with the photography materials, building teacher-student rapport, the potential for integration into different areas of elementary curriculum, and support for the developmental theorists'…

Discusses using children's literature to introduce mathematical concepts to middle school students. Provides an annotated list of novels and recommends development of concepts, processes, and attitudes to motivate students' intellectual explorations. (JPB)

Asserts that students need opportunities to solve problems by making concept connections from many disciplines. Integrating mathematics and social studies can help. Includes 20 class activities and a chart recommending which grade levels are most appropriate for each activity. (CFR)

Explaining that an integrated curriculum is one that makes explicit the ways in which connections between ideas are perceived, this book provides background and offers practical suggestions for implementing and managing an integrated curriculum in the classroom. The book notes that the integrated curriculum approach goes by many names--integrated…

To provide students with interdisciplinary instruction, future teachers need a broad base of knowledge and skills enabling them to comprehend the interrelationships and dependencies among disciplines. The article describes how San Diego State University's teacher education program accomplishes this and offers planning guidelines. (SM)

By integrating the language arts across the curriculum, teachers and librarians can help students make connections between what they already know and new material. Teachers committed to this approach need to spend time planning, executing, and evaluating the process and to bring the following essential components to the classroom: (1) love and…

Asserts that geographic literacy plays an important role in the overall history-social science curriculum. Provides a lesson planning strategy and recommends using the Five Themes of Geography as a guide when designing history curricula. Includes recommended textbooks, professional journals, and other teacher resources. (CFR)

Asserts that there is a need for a more effective means to teach methods of scientific inquiry in geography classes. Describes a laboratory project in which college-level students are introduced to scientific inquiry. Provides seven suggestions for using similar scientific inquiry activities in elementary and secondary classrooms. (CFR)

Contends that instruction in schools from elementary through university levels is a seamless web in which numerous elements of subjects converge with elements from other subjects. Asserts that a variety of disciplines can be taught through a study of Christopher Columbus and the Columbus voyages. (CFR)