I always want to show the students how math is connected to other subjects and the real world. Frankly, one of my big dreams for our math program is not to get more girls to calculus (but YAY! if that happens). Rather my dream is that it starts to blow up the idea of “time” and “school day” enough that we can start to incorporate cross-curricular time in the day. How cool would it be if instead of teaching dimensional analysis in physics and again in algebra, we taught it concurrently in the context of a bigger problem? But how do we inch towards this?
This year I have tried two cross-curricular projects:
- Math (Financial Algebra) + College and Career: Ginger helped me design a unit about the realities of paying for college. She taught the introductory lessons (on block periods) and popped in as I continued this mini unit through the following week. The feedback was very positive and many thought that all of their junior classmates should have access to this unit too.
- Math (Algebra Readiness) + Religion: Adam and I got our classes together in the Innovation Center to explore examples of the Fibonacci Sequence in nature and discuss the implications. Is this mathematical pattern proof of a common creator? This was really fun, but the feedback that I got from my freshmen students was that it was awkward to work with a different class of students (in this case a mixed-gender class of seniors), especially for just one class period. My personal feedback is that the lesson we designed should’ve been spread out over a week or more — it was really dense.
Moving forward I have questions:
- What is the most logistically efficient way to do a unit/project with another teacher/department? Working with Ginger was easier than with Adam (no offense Adam!) simply because she did not have a classroom full of students that were expected to collaborate with mine. I know my colleagues all have prep periods (which would eliminate the concern of having to join classes) but that’s a big ask and I’m just not there yet.
- Does a cross-curricular course make more sense than a cross-curricular lesson or project? Yes, if the only concern is finding overlapping time and a similar student population. No, because creating a new course feels like a huge barrier to cross-curricular work. Also, if we keep increasing our course offerings do they eventually get watered down?
- Anyone want to try another cross-curricular project/unit with me?
Yes, Kristina. I would love to work with someone on AI. Amazon offers very easy Blueprints https://developer.amazon.com/blogs/alexa/post/9c7792fd-271d-4eac-a850-6257704142e4/now-anyone-can-use-alexa-skill-blueprints-to-create-and-publish-an-alexa-skill-in-minutes-with-no-coding-required-and-new-blueprints-for-content-creators-bloggers-and-organizations . Your students could create a quiz or game that offers them a chance to review necessary facts. My objective would be an introduction to machine learning. This is a very light intro, but it opened my eyes!
or How about something like https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/modern-art/4. Python Drawing program requires an understanding of graphing, and two dimension location (x,y) .
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I often think about all the ways I could be collaborating with other departments and disciplines. One thing I'd love to organize is a PD session where all teachers engage in "speed dating": we go around a room filled with areas dedicated to each academic department – where units, lesson plans, essential questions, projects, and objectives of classes are readily laid out for all to see … teachers walk around and consider ideas to connect with other topics and subjects … they could have short conversations with potential partner teachers to see if there is a fit or determine mutual interest. The combinations are unlimited!
We have done so such work to refresh our curriculum these last few years and part of the negative bi-product is that in some instances we may not be aware about what new things exists… I think our focus moving forward is developing what we have created and build visible scope and sequences that all faculty have access to… this will help teachers see what is happening and be able to both identify times where there are similar objectives we can partner on but also curricular similarities that encourage projects like the amazing things one you mention here!
Yes! I would love to have a better sense of what other classes are doing and when to help plan out joint projects.