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I enjoy the challenge of 'weaving' science disciplines together when I teach. It's exciting when a sixth grader has that 'aha' moment and realizes that gathering core samples from an Arctic model and plotting results on a coordinate grid connects to a math lesson from the previous month!

Let's share our ideas and experiences of 'weaving' science into other content areas or other science disciplines. Students truly witness the importance of learning when they experience how science is woven through everyday living.

Enjoy your week! Alyce

Geography Trivia From Space Contest

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is currently living aboard the International Space Station. During his six-month stay in space, Kelly will have the opportunity to see and photograph various locations on Earth. In fact, part of his job is to capture a kaleidoscope of geographic spots used for scientific analysis of our planet.

Using these pictures, astronaut Kelly wants to test your knowledge of the world through a geography trivia game on Twitter. Kelly will tweet a picture and ask the public to identify the place depicted in the photo. The first person to correctly identify the place will win an autographed copy of the picture.

The first image in the geography contest was posted on Nov. 15, 2010. Kelly plans to continue posting contest photos throughout his mission.

To play the geography trivia game and to get other updates from Kelly throughout his mission, follow his twitter account: http://twitter.com/stationcdrkelly

For more information and for complete rules for the Geography Trivia From Space Contest, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedi...test.html.

Questions about the contest should be directed to Amiko Kauderer at [email protected] .

by Alyce Dalzell, Yesterday, 9:49 PM
Let's share our ideas and experiences of 'weaving' science into other content areas or other science disciplines. Students truly witness the importance of learning when they experience how science is woven through everyday living.

Hi Alyce,

I'm so glad you started a thread on this topic. As educators it is paramount that we not teach our students snippets of information, but rather give them the gift of knowledge and inspire a love of learning. Weaving subjects together makes learning relevant for our students and helps them see the cross-curricular ties between the common content they learn in various subjects. Additionally, exposing students to common concepts in different content areas helps the students to better remember the concept.
Last year I had an opportunity to work in an elementary science lab. The lab's primary focus was to directly support classroom science instruction with hands-on activities. Working with classroom teachers, the music teacher, and the PE coaches, we did common planning to ensure the students at our school had an integrated curriculum. For instance, we did a common unit on soundwaves and instruments. In music, the students learned about instruments and how the instruments use air to make the sounds. They learned about percussion instruments and watched drums and violin stings vibrate, and learned about pitch and volume. In their classroom they learned about famous composers in history and about the human ear, how soundwaves travel and how soundwaves affect pitch and volume in science. In the science lab we made 'tympanic membranes' out of tin cans with a balloons stretched over the top. We put rice on top of the balloon and the students had to figure out how to make the rice jump without touching it (there were various objects available to use in my classroom). Based on their existing knowledge from music (vibrating instruments) and science in the classroom (how soundwaves travel through the air) many figured out they could use a celtic drum to make the rice jump. They recorded this in their journals by drawing pictures (art) and writing about their findings (language arts).
The NSTA press offers numerous resources to help teachers create cross-curricular ties.
Here are a few:
Life Upon a Science Book
Picture Perfect Science Lessons, Expanded 2nd Edition: Using Children's Books to Guide Inquiry, 3-6
Teaching Using Topographic Maps
Integrating Science with Mathematics and Literacy
Activities Linking Science to Math, 5-8
These are just a few examples, but there are many books, journal articles, and webinars that help teachers find way to create cross-curricular lessons. Cross-curricular planning does take a little additional time, but the effort is well worth the benefits your to your students.

Maureen

I recently found a NASA source that encompasses a collection of 7-9th algebraic enrichment activities. Satellites, Sun-Earth system, and Space Weather are a few of the Space Science topics that are included.

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/product_detail.aspx?id=10.2505/15/ERNASA10_0046

Enjoy your day, Alyce

Hi Adah & Maureen,
Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge on our new thread Integrating Earth & Space Science in Other Content Areas!

I may spend time over our winter break searching for additional support in this area. I'm hoping educators that have developed their personal lessons will post ideas and activities.

The Discussion Forums are the perfect place for us to gain wisdom and advice in this area.
Enjoy your day!
Alyce

There are so many wonderful ways to integrate science- any branch of science- into every facet of the curriculum from pre-kindergarten through teaching adults- that I really wouldn't know where to begin! As my emphasis for the past decade has been to increase both student and adults' understanding of astronomical content, I will offer a few great ways to achieve this. The url for Space Math that was given above is good, but it only focuses on one of the many Space Math resources. If you look at the main Space Math url at http://spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov you will find math problems for students at all grade levels on a wide variety of Earth and Space-related content. Although the primary emphasis is on solving real-world math problems, there is a reading selection for each problem and they emphasis how we use technology to learn about about the Earth and space. Another fabulous resource for integrating reading, writing, technology,and communication skills with astronomy is the Space Weather Action Centers. This resource is easy to implement in elementary through high school classrooms and can be a short mini-unit of a few lessons or can even form a longer unit as time permits. The url for Space Weather Action Centers is http://sunearthday.nasa.gov/swac/. Another fabulous way to integrate science content is through literature. What are some good science fiction books that you have used to excite students about science? My middle school students love "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle and "Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card.

The Last Survivors series by Susan Beth Pfeffer (including Life as We Knew It, The Dead and the Gone, and This World We Live In)are gripping novels that seem to keep the most disinterested middle school student fascinated. The books are about the personal struggle of a family following an apocalytic environmental event that causes life to change dramatically in virtually every way. Our class of eighth graders broke into groups, and about a quarter of the class chose at least one of the series. The students blogged and discussed the science in the book on a weekly basis.

Another book that students find compelling is Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Although the title sounds morbid, the book is surprisingly funny, while reverent, in its exploration of the human body postmortem in the pursuit of scientific discovery. Probably best in high school, but some mature middle school students may be able to handle it.

Hi Tina, I'm so glad you've joined our discussion thread. Your idea about switching content areas to teach for a day is an excellent idea to not only support other content areas, but to show our students that as educators we support and understand the importance of weaving learning into one thread! A popular interdisciplinary unit in our district has been the Iditarod race. I'd love to hear about additional experiences that include utilizing other content teachers. Talk to you later Tina, Alyce

Jennifer wrote, 'Another book that students find compelling is Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. Although the title sounds morbid, the book is surprisingly funny, while reverent, in its exploration of the human body postmortem in the pursuit of scientific discovery. Probably best in high school, but some mature middle school students may be able to handle it.'

Hi Jennifer,
My anatomy students have read Stiff in the past as part of a book review assignment. I agree it is best used in a high school setting and I also agree that weaves many different science concepts together. My students did think the book was gross, but they also learned a lot.

In fact, using popular literature to interrelate science principles is a very engaging way to get your students involved. As part of the book review assignment, everyone in the class had to pick a popular non-science book or a science fiction novel, read it, and present a short review to the class. They had to pick out three science concepts and show how the book explained them. It was challenging for some, but they really enjoyed it by the end.

Weaving other content into earth and space science is certainly important - as is broadening our students' horizons about what careers they may choose to learn about. I found a journal article that does just that: Students at the Edge of Space.
In light of the fact that our NASA space shuttle program has come to an end, new ways to enthrall our students about space travel and the technologies that will emerge from such pursuits seems like a lofty yet important integration into our curriculum. The article shows what Arkansas is doing.

My training is in Language Arts, but I am teaching 8th gr. Science and Social Studies for the first time. As a middle school, we are encouraged to support LA and Math content areas. I have found historical paragraphs for social studies and problem/solve scenarios for science that I am using for Bell Work. For the science ones, the kids not only focus on the skill of problem solving the science dilemma, they have to restate to answer the question. The beginning of the year has been spent with Geography for both content areas. Since I have the same kids for both subjects, I have had to teach different parts of geography so I am not repeating. For the science vocabulary, one focus is on prefixes, that are shared with math and social studies classes. The words are introduced in Science class, and used in math and social studies with a matching and fill in the blank activity. (quick bell assignments)

I am definitely a big supporter of integrating science with other subject matters. I teach 4th grade and I always find ways to bring meaning to science and connected it to real life. Since we focus on the Hawaiian culture I 4th grade, I try to connect everything we learn in science to the Hawaiian culture. For examples, when teaching a unit on plants, I have them plant Naupaka (which is abundant in their backyard and also has a legend about Pele, goddess of fire, connected to it). I also connect writing and art to it as they drew a picture about Pele and the legend of Naupaka; they also wrote a story/reflection about the legend through their art. We are currently studying about earth plates, earthquakes and volcanoes, so I connect it to the formation of the Hawaiian Islands and the different Hawaiian volcanoes. It is amazing to see how students improve their comprehension and curiosity based once you connect science concepts to real life experiences.

Last year I was able to weave math into my content and our 8th grade math teachers supported what I was going to teach in science. It was wonderful being able to collaborate with the other teachers and have students "see" that math and science go together in many cases. This year I am not able to work as closely with the math teachers since our planning time is not aligned, but I am teaching word parts, like roots, suffixes etc., and the social studies and math teachers in my grade level are using the same words with the students to help them increase the amount of exposure to the new vocabulary. We are supporting each other, our students and our language arts teachers.

At the beginning of our school year I start my Science students on a research project that leads them through the steps of the Scientific Method. They observe and come up with a problem and gather information to aid in their creation of a hypothesis. Following this they have to collect data to prove/dis-prove their hypothesis. We integrate math into this project and work with the math teacher to have students collect and analyze their data and then decide which type of graphs to display their data in. This turns out to be a great way to integrate the topics and create a meaningful relevant learning experience for our students.

Since I have no formal time to teach visual arts with my students, I incorporate art into the core subject areas. It seems to help the students to "see" the science concepts when they have to draw it out. My students seem to like drawing out the periodic table, food webs, ecosystems, different types of energy, etc. Whenever there is some extra time or for extra credit, the students summarize a science concepts using a poetic style such as a haiku or diamante to add to their art presentation. This helps the students to break down the science concepts into essential key concepts.

Thank you Alyce for starting this thread. There are so many big time contributors, I feel like a rookie. I am a frustrated earth science teacher who is teaching math. Actually, I do enjoy teaching math, but I am always looking for ways to sneak science into the curriculum. I can see the value for the students of integrating the two and I really appreciate Dorian's link to nasa spacemath. I mean over 400 problems! There is something there for algebra, geometry and more. I have done basic math/science lessons like calculating how fast the earth is moving on its axis, around the sun, and around the center of the universe. But the problems that I saw at spacemath kick it up a few notches. I look forward to enhancing my math lessons with some more cool science problems. Eventually maybe a separate interdisciplinary course could be created. Keep the ideas coming in. Thanks.

It is important for me to collaborate with other teachers. I appreciate any ideas for collaboration with other subject areas. Thanks Everyone!

Vincent, Engineering examples can often offer great real-world applications for teaching math concepts. For example, how about using navigation as a tool for teaching basic geometry? Here is one lesson from a 10-lesson unit that was funded by the Institute of Navigation (www.ion.org). ~Mindy @ TeachEngineering

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Navigating by the Numbers (External Website)

Thank you for bringing up the discussion of intergrating Earth and Space Sciences in other content areas. The school that I am currently at focuses so much on reading, writing, and math that we hardly have time to teach science. I really enjoy science, so I liked a lot of the resuorces that I recieved from this discussion thread. Something that I have been doing in my class is to look at my reading program and pick out the books that I know I can intergrate science concepts into it. I haven't used any of the resources that were mentioned, but I have used Brainpop, Brainpop Jr., and Discovery Education. These websites are so handy to have and it makes learning fun for the students. I also use these websites to build on their background knowledge.

Hi Nohelani, I agree with your statement that most schools now choose to focus on reading and math and devote very little time to the other content areas. Of course, this is mainly due in part to NCLB and the reading and math targets that the schools are required to meet in order to achieve AYP. With language arts and math taking up the lion’s share of the day, it’s really tough to be able to teach science and to do justice to it. I teach fourth grade so it’s imperative that the science content be taught as fourth grade has to take the Hawaii State Assessment in this area. My grade level has decided to tackle this issue by addressing the science benchmarks during our science block (which incidentally is probably less than two hours a week), and to integrate or “weave” the science into our language arts and math blocks. With the pressure mounting to continue to meet AYP, our grade level has decided that cross curricular integration is probably the most efficient and effective way to make sure that the science benchmarks are all taught and that they’re taught in a manner that best makes sense (both for the students and the teacher). Good luck to you as this is not an easy process to undertake. We’re still working on the cross curricular integration (it’s hard work and takes time). I don’t believe there is any quick fix or a one size fits all model for this process. Each school has to find their own balance and has to figure out what works best for them.

Hi all - At our school we have a lot of cross discipline teaching and integrated subjects which allow us to teach to the standards yet provide science, social studies and inquiry into everyday. I do feel for the schools that have become rigid in their curriculums and are mandating certain programs, certain minutes and certain ways to teach. It is hard for a teacher to feel the creative juices when it is dictated how and what they teach! Keep up the good work in trying to create a balance Noehelani! Your students will really appreciate it!

Actually this year I find integrating art into science is extremely important. My kids this year have a very difficult time listening to direct instructions. They are very energetic and very chatty which affects their attention span. However, when I began to incorporate art, they were amazingly engaged and they seemed to understand the concepts much better. They were not only able to draw and label a volcano, but also could explain their diagram in writing. Kids nowadays are very different. They don't want to read and study, instead they tend to do better by "doing" (i.e. drawing, writing, acting).

Shahinaz, I whole-heartedly agree with you about making science and general instruction more interactive for the students. Problem-based inquiry which stems from science is the integration link for which students can connect to more complex-thinking skills. I recently went to a writing workshop that emphasized the importance of using expository writing of real-life experiences as the first bridge to reporting about their learning experiences. This quarter I intended to start-off the quarter with students using functional writing to report on their rock hunts over the fall break. I've recently integrated more "draw what you see" and label everything to improve students' observation and documentation skills. It's always a helpful reminder to have students tap-in to alternative experiences with science!

I am a math and science 4th grade teacher. At our school we have double math days and this limits our science time. Due to this, my grade level and I are trying to find ways to integrate the subjects so science is still being addressed. Right now we are working on place value and are starting on fractions and decimals. I am trying to create a unit where I can use distance between planets, sizes and masses of planets and other space objects while teaching place value. So far, I haven't been as creative as I want to be, but it is a start. Any suggestions and welcomed. I am hoping as we compare and contrast the planets this will tie in with fractions.

I really love the discussion of integrating and weaving curriculum. I must confess that last school year I got way to wrapped up in the state standards testing and did not have any fun with my kids. This year I have vowed to do more science projects and integrate more subjects. Due to time constraints, I often try to integrate more than one science benchmark at a time and also tie in a reading/writing component by have my students do research in books and on the computer and then writing a short report about it. I just recently played the eBook "Diary of a Worm" for my students and then they wrote their own diary entries as if they were a worm, highlighting all the important ways worms benefit plants from adding nutrients to the soil. This hit a third grade friendly letter writing benchmark and the plants depend on animals science benchmark at the same time. The students were very engaged and loved adding fun details to their entries. I really like the NASA space weather site that was shared. What a fun way to integrate media, script-writing, science, and math into one unit or mini unit. I am definitely going to look into this more when fourth quarter roles around and I need Space Science ideas. Thanks everyone!

Does anyone know of any good science fiction chapter books for 3rd/4th grade level?

Each year we intergrate our reading curriculum with science. One of our reading selections is called, Seeing Earth From Space. The students are constantly making Text-to-Text Connections, this strategy has really worked for our students. They also get to learn from a different perspective and look at the whole picture rather than think 'oh, we are doing science'. We also use it for math when we calculate if I weigh this much on Earth, how much will I weigh on the other planets (multiplication/division of decimals). Thanks for all of your ideas!

Ricki Luster

I think that more teachers should integrate science into other content areas. Science is being pushed aside because we are concentrating so much on LA and math. I think that all subjects are important for a child's growth. When teaching Language arts the children should be reading 75% of the day, and we do read in science so why not integrate Reading strategies with science. In the past quarter I have taught about Space science and the rotation of the moons orbit around earth and the earth's orbit around the sun. And currently we are working on building ecosystems. I believe that the children need to read material as well as do the hands on activities. I make sure to remind my students that the reading strategies we learn in class also applies to science. At first they were having a hard time understanding this. It takes practice to remind them that these subjects are not stand alones. They relate to one another. We always look at science and math as being related but LA is all around us. We need it to do even math. Also integrating technolgoy. We have a program that we use at our school called Discovery Education. The children watch videos and respond on through the computer what they have learned. They also do Kid Biz which has science articles that the children can read to get more back ground knowledge. I think this was a great forum. I hope well all learn how to integrate science into the rest of our curriculum.

Aloha Katherine, I LOVE your idea... I am currently needing to create a space science lesson for my 6th grade class and there are no space science benchmarks at the 6th grade level here in Hawaii. This is a requirement for one of the classes I am currently taking for professional development and I have been at a loss for how to implement a space science lesson effectively. We are also preparing for our state tests and are focusing on math and language arts as well. You just gave me a great idea about integrating math (we are now reviewing fractions, decimals, and percents) and space science. I am sorry that I don't have a lesson to share, but if I create one I will be sure to pose it! Hope it is going well for you! Thanks again. by Katherine Tierney, Fri Oct 14, 2011 8:41 PM I am a math and science 4th grade teacher. At our school we have double math days and this limits our science time. Due to this, my grade level and I are trying to find ways to integrate the subjects so science is still being addressed. Right now we are working on place value and are starting on fractions and decimals. I am trying to create a unit where I can use distance between planets, sizes and masses of planets and other space objects while teaching place value. So far, I haven't been as creative as I want to be, but it is a start. Any suggestions and welcomed. I am hoping as we compare and contrast the planets this will tie in with fractions.

Wow! This is a great to combine both content areas into one and it allows the students to see the way in which both subjects can be connected. Thank so much for posting!

A way to integrate Science and Literature/World Culures is to examine the myth and legends behind the constellations. A planisphere/star chart can access names of constellations for Western european culture and Greco/Roman mythology can tie the sky together. For other cultures a little research can yield Asian legends. A particular favorite of mine is a book called "Keepers of the Night Sky" which has Amerindian legends. The are available planisphere with native american constellations. I have attached a simple planisphere kit to get things started.

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Planisphere_Starwheel.pdf (0.07 Mb)

Planisphere_cover_piece.pdf (0.03 Mb)