Integrating Science with Other Subjects
Reading Assignment
Chapter 10 in TeachingScience to Every Child:Using Culture as a StartingPoint
Interest in Thematic Units
Although the curriculum and the school day are neatlydivided into separate subjects, real-world approaches toproblems and issues cut across disciplinary lines.
Over the past few years, the need for and interest incurriculum integration has intensified throughout thecountry.
Thematic UnitsSome Cautions Regarding Science Integration
•Distracting Nature of Thematic Units
•Science concepts are often supplementalto the theme of the unit.
Remember that science lessons
should involve the scienceprocess
skills.
Using Themes for Developing Units
Common Starting Point – Identify a central organizingidea which may be either:
Interdisciplinary (Cross-Curricular)
Means organizing the whole curriculum including science,mathematics, social studies, language arts, music, and art arounda particular theme such as the environment, space exploration, orthe oceans.
(Or)
Integrated (Blended) Science Curriculum
Means organizing the curriculum around a broader science idea thatwould require students to understand concepts from different fieldsof science.
Example: Climate Change, which involves Earth sciences, physicalsciences, and life sciences or
Ocean Science which involves the biology,chemistry, geology, and chemistry of the oceans.
Ways to Apply Mathematics to Scientific Inquiry
Mathematics has been called the language of science.The NSES stress that science “requires the use ofmathematics in the collection and treatment of dataand in the reasoning used to develop concepts, laws,and theories.”
•Quantifying the Real World
Measuring
Science, Mathematics, and the Metric System
•Organizing and Interpreting Data
Using Graphs to Organize and Interpret Data
•Using Patterns and Relationships
Making Predictions from Graphs
•Operating on Numbers
Connecting Science andSocial Studies
•Making connections between science andsocial studies helps students create a morecomplete picture of the world.
•Science/Technology/Society (STS) Themeswork especially well for integrating science andsocial studies.
Language Arts at the Center ofScience Learning
Teachers of all subjects should be engaged inlanguage instruction.
Literacy in most schools generally includes
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
Inquiry-based science instruction is especiallyuseful for incorporating language instruction.
Incorporating Trade Books in Science Lessons
•“Do first, read later.” (Yore, 2004) - Science-related books thatmay be used to enhance science lessons. (Biographies,reference books on a particular topic, books with fictionalcharacters but focus on a science concept).
•Can provide an aesthetic or emotional dimension to learning.Can involve a wider audience and offer an applied setting forlearning science.
•Teachers need to carefully select trade books because somehave factual errors, or information and illustrations thatencourage the formation of misconceptions.
Excellent Website on Integration of Literacyand Science with recommendations of trade books.
http://www.esiponline.org/index.html
Concept Maps as an Alternative Form of Writing
Concept maps represent an individual’s understandingabout a concept and its relationship to other concepts.
(Novak, 1999)
See PowerPoint
on Concept
Mapping.
Science Notebooks:Journals for Science Knowledge
Need to give careful thought to how notebooks will be used.
At the very least, students can record observations in their notebooks.If you want to have students reflect on their thinking, time should bedevoted to this task.
Teacher also need to provide feedback or notebooks lose a lot ofpower.
Science Writing Heuristic to Support Science Inquiry (Wallace,Hand, & Yang, 2004)
Beginning Ideas – What are my questions?
Experiments – What did I do?
Observations – What did I see?
Claims – What can I claim?
Evidence – How do I know? Why am I making theseclaims?
Reading – How do my ideas compare to other ideas?
Reflection – How have my ideas changed?