Arts and Sciences Connection
EDUC R634A Summer 1 2003

Special Speakers:

Thursday May 8
Overview of International Baccalaureate and Inquiry Design................................................................................Laura Kent

Thursday May 15
Teaming - Global Connections of Mathematics to Other Content Areas............................................................Laura Kent

Tuesday May 27
Interdisciplinary Lessons/Inquiry.............................................................................................................................Jane Zenger
Social Studies........................................................................................................................................................David Chadwell

Wednesday May 28
Nature of Science Across the Curriculum.......................................................................................................Steve Thompson
Middle Level Science and Portfolios...............................................................................................................Johnathan Singer

Thursday May 29
Assessment, Rubrics and Evaluation Programs.......................................................................................................Teri Kuhs
Writing Across the Curriculum................................................................................................................................Chirsty Clonts

Thursday June 12
Mathematics Across the Curriculum:
A Collection of Activities from the Mathematics in Context Curriculum Utilizing the "Realistic Approach"...Laura Kent
Presentations of Group and Individual Unit Plans
Click here to read reflections by Dr. Zenger and Ms. Lacy on "Mathematics Across the Curriculum"
Click here to download the PDF file of reflections from Dr. Jane Zenger and Ms. Lacy on "Mathematics Across the Curriculum"

Thursday June 26
Summary, Synthesis & Planning for the 2003-2004 School Year

Crayton Course Reflection

Observers: Jane Zenger, Ph.D., Director, TQC; Virginia Lacy, Principal, Crayton Middle School

On the final day of the class students presented their inquiry projects and defined their instructional plans. The process involved the essential question, the assessments, the student products and the connection to curriculum. These projects will be implemented in the 2003/04 terms in preparation for becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) middle school site.

Projects:
Group 1: What is the relationship of Music and Culture? The Music (choral) teacher will lead this exploration of how music can help students learn more about the culture, art, and history of another country. Since Crayton Middle School has a significant number of English as Second Language (ESL) students, the countries selected to study will reflect the background of the students from the ESL classes. The other choral students will contribute to a production by helping develop ideas for investigation and for classroom performances. One example would be "A musical tour of Mexico."

Group 2: Using Machines

Science - How are machines important in our society? Students will examine the physics of machines and the impact machines have had on modern life. What were some of the ancient machines that changed civilization?
Language Arts - What language and vocabulary might be associated with machines. What is the definition of a machine and how can one describe a machine.
Part 2. The idea of machines will be used in the unit dealing with propaganda techniques. Students will be asked to consider propaganda in print and media ads. In addition, the words that are used in ads will be studies, especially the way words and ideas are "loaded" to be emotional. Students will study propaganda techniques and design a presentation about a machine that they "invent."

Math - show how simple machines have a connection to math. The teacher uses historical idea if Egyptian pyramids as an example. Students will build on basic math concepts connected with simple shapes and formulas such as Pythagorean Theorem and area of a triangle.

World History - the history of Egypt will be the core of this section. Some of the problems presented will speculate on the kind of primitive machines needed in Egypt to build temples and pyramids. Discussions and study groups will look at how ancient machines were used to build pyramids while others evolved due to the particular environment. Emphasis will be placed on how the needs of the people and the environment make a difference on the types of machines invented. An example might involve the aspect of being on the Nile River. The Nile, a river that flooded and ran contrary to the wind caused the people look at wind and water in very particular ways. . Students will also be asked to look to advancements Egyptians made in math, science and medicine.

Group 3: Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle. Improving student perceptions of Crayton's community, service and environment. The group will conduct a cross-grade service-learning project to learn about the importance of re-cycling and the impact of too much waste on an ecosystem.

Group 4: Germany-a study of the history and literature of Germany. Will focus on standards dealing with World War II, holocaust, German music and literature such as The Diary of Anne Frank and Number the Stars.
Teacher Resource Reading:

• Man's Search for Meaning
• The Holocaust Museum website (http://www.ushmm.org/)
• Books on German culture, art and history

Group 5: Students will investigate how to stay healthy. The focus will be on the skeletal and muscular systems and the diseases that are associated to those systems. Science is the content focus and the areas of support will be math, language arts and reading.

The science content involves the functions and structure of the systems, particularly on the diseases of the systems.

Language arts - The students will write a "business" letter to organizations to gather information about certain diseases such as MS or osteoporosis. They will also conduct research about how to be a healthy person and write a 5-paragraph essay to explain their ideas.

Math - The math classes will tie population and health statistics into the research reports. They will learn about rations related to such things as such as prevalence or the percentage of a disease in a given population. Students will graph this data and design reports for brochures to teach others about how to keep bones and muscles healthy.

Group 6: Science students look at local problems ( in the school and community) and investigate solutions. Questions will be posed in science and supported by language arts and math. Students will be asked to develop some inquiry about a school-based issue and investigate ideas for solving the problem. The research may require both library work and student-made surveys and interviews. Students will use the scientific method to help focus the topic. The work will be connected to interest of students and the results will be "published."

Group 7: What is the history of slaves prior to the Civil War and the narrative experience based on authentic stories told by and about slaves?

Language Arts- Students will use authentic and supporting literature that they may not normally see in a regular school curriculum. They will compare slave stories they read to these stories of Frederick Douglas and other well-known anti-slavery writers.

Arts - Music will be used to discuss songs and rhythm used by slaves to communicate and maintain threads of African culture.

Health - Students will learn about diseases and the results of poor hygiene on diet of slaves.

Group 8: Librarian Support Teams - the librarians in the media center will provide a website to help all the teachers conducting inquiry work. Teachers will be supported by the media specialists in the inquiry projects in the "stacks" and also at a specifically designed website ----www.richlandone/crayton/linksforteachers. The librarians will look at each of the projects listed above and work with teachers and students to find supporting resources for implementing the inquiry work.

Click here to download a PDF version of these reflections.