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Elementary Science

Science in Other Subjects

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Kaleigh Steele Kaleigh Steele 180 Points

What are some ways that science can be incorporated with other subjects? How do I include science in math class, in language class, in social studies?

Lauren Crow Lauren Crow 205 Points

This is something that I have thought a lot about as I am preparing to become a teacher. I think a really cool thing is that science is everywhere and therefore can be incorporated in so many different areas!

For language I would still focus on phonics, reading fluency and reading comprehension but allow science to be the topic.

For math I would use science to focus on maybe measurements and diagrams.

For social studies I think it would be fun to bring in archeology! 

Definitely very excited to learn from other teachers on how to make sure science is incorborated into the curriculum and treated as important as it is! 

Peyton Smith Peyton Smith 205 Points

This is something that I too am particularly interested in! I think that gaining awareness that science is everywhere is the first step. In order to incorporate science into other subjects I think it would be best to understand the importance of inquiry. Asking the simple question of 'why' can help introduce science to other subjects. In English, for example, a biography on a science professional could be written. Within this biography, students could begin to ask why this scientist was so important to science development. This is just one example of how science can be incorporated with other subjects.

Connor Neuroth Connor Neuroth 80 Points

Hi there Kaleigh,

I am a preservice teacher at Wartburg college and for classes that we take here we talk about incorpating science into other subjects. Here are some ideas that I have found that may be useful. For language arts there is a book called The Story of Bottled Water. This book was useful when I used it with other college students for a mock lesson. Also, there is a worksheet that goes along with the book. It would help students work on writing as well as science! Here is the website link http://www.teachhub.com/integrate-science-across-curriculum 

Connor Neuroth

Wartburg College 

Katie Henderson Katie Henderson 180 Points

I feel like it could be really easy to do a read-aloud with a science based book and complete a writing activity based off of it. This way you are doing literacy and science at the same time!

1. Biographies of scientists and mathematicians can be part of your reading courses. 

2. Teaching Science with Tradebooks is an excellent resource; if your students are older, find otu what chapter books they are reading, and see if their are lessons incorporating science, social studies, etc. I would collaborate with the language arts and social studies instructors, find out what they were doing, and connect as best we could. I have used Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to study geography, nutrition, caloric intake, weather, oceanography, and even ship building. PBS has a plethora of resources as well, NOVA specifically. I have used the Iditarod to again teach mathematics (mileage, speed, caloric intake), physical science (motion, friction, weather (winter storm paths, how to surive in cold weather), Nutrition (food as fuel and building blocks (Chemistry in the Community helped me with this) for humans and animals), Materials Science (materials for sleds, colthing, other gear), and I have added other intersts when students ask. Winterdance by Gary Paulsen is a great read about training for the Iditarod as well. 

3. Doing a science lab, graphing data, organizing data for patterns, all connect to mathematics.

4. In mathematics, I would do hands on activities that were often science labs, but focus on the data itself, how to organize it, how to display it-graphing, even finding equations that fit the data. In Algebra 2, I often used the spreading of a common cold, wehere we would do a variatio of the labs below, collect the data, then calculate the equation that best fits the data of a group, the class, and then I had multiple years of data, for that larger data set.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/student-teacher-sheets/spread-disease-laboratory-activity/

http://www2.nau.edu/lrm22/lessons/disease/disease_lab.html

You can use the book Outbreak as a reading enhancement, or ther books that might be more appropriate for a different grade level. 

5. The geography teacher would often talk about disasters caused by humans-such as the Bhopal gas tragedy; as a science teacher I would hep the students wtih the science and understanding how it could have happened, the geography teacher would talk about the social impacts. Natural or human disasters give relevance for learning more in contents, allows for itnegration. 

6. I borrowed argumentative essay guidelines from the language arts instructor so students would be following the same or similar writing guidlelines for reading news stories, journal articles, even their graphic organizers. So collaborating with other content teachers really ehlped me at the HS level. 

Hope this gives you some ideas and a start at integrating!

 

 

Sarah Greear Sarah Greear 200 Points

To incorporate science in your language studies in the classroom you can discuss and study vocabulary for science. You can also read science based literacy books and do research on different topics for different writing prompts. 

 

 

 

I do still have a question on how integrate science when studying social studies in the classroom?

Beverly DeVore-Wedding Bev DeVore-Wedding 6148 Points

Hello Sarah, I am replying to your comment about learning vocabulary in English class to integrate science. Disagree with introducing vocabulary out of context and thought these thoughts might help. Learning vocabulary without context is not a preferred learning method and rarely helps students learn the importance of that vocabulary. . However, using trade or chapter books for reading and writing that use the vocabulary of science is much better and preferred to standalone vocabulary. In terms of integrating with social studies. That is even easier since so many advances in history-exploration and success of the British Empire was the discovery and use of salt for curing food. Right there is a great science topic. *Salt, A World History *by Mark Kurlansky. Other books that discuss history and food may be found at this website. Another science advancement that allowed for all mariners to be more successful was the development of a good, no a working, watch or time piece that allowed mariners to navigate with more than just stars. The book *Longitude *by Dava Sobel discusses this advancement in science & engineering in terms of social studies. Engineering and materials may be discussed using the story of Margaret Knight who invented the machine that makes square, flat-bottomed paper bags . Natural and human-caused natural disasters can integrate social studies and science such as the climbing deaths on Mt. Everest, the Bhopal Gas release, mudslides. Tying in histories of immigration and where people prefer to live, recreated, etc. with the science of weather, geology, poisons interest students as well as integrate. Hope this helps you.

Beverly DeVore-Wedding Bev DeVore-Wedding 6148 Points

Sarah, I forgot to attach this as well. *Beverly DeVore-Wedding* Post Doc, Framing the Chemistry Curriculum University of Nebraska–Lincoln Chemistry Hamilton Hall 738, UNL, 68588-0304 402.472.1430 *"Those who dare to teach must never cease to learn" * Mardy Murie from "Where the Mountains are Nameless by Jonathan Waterman, 2005 *Modified from Joseph Cotton Dana, 1912* On Mon, Aug 27, 2018 at 8:38 AM,

Specific examples for integrating science and social studies:

?
In terms of integrating with social studies. That is even easier since so many advances in history-exploration and success of the British Empire was the discovery and use of salt for curing food. Right there is a great science topic. ?Salt, A World History by ?Mark Kurlansky.


Other books that discuss history and food may be found at this website


Another science advancement that allowed for all mariners to be more successful was the development of a good, no a working, watch or time piece that allowed mariners to navigate with more than just stars. The book Longitude by Dava Sobel discusses this advancement in science & engineering in terms of social studies. 


?Engineering and materials may be discussed using the story of Margaret Knight who invented the machine that makes square, flat-bottomed paper bags.


Natural and human-caused natural disasters can integrate social studies and science such as the climbing deaths on Mt. Everest, the Bhopal Gas release, mudslides. Tying in histories of immigration and where people prefer to live, recreated, etc. with the science of weather, geology, poisons interest students as well as integrate. 

Donna Shah Donna Shah 1653 Points

It's fun for the language arts teacher and science teacher to work together. The science teacher can do the experiment and the l.a. teacher can help with the writing. This lends itself perfectly to a 'How to' writing assignment!

The Atlantic had this interesting article about reading that I thought might fit here: Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years

 

Ashley Jacobs Ashley Jacobs 20 Points

This is something that I have thought a lot about. I recently did a science lesson with whales and connected it to math with measurements. We talked about different measuring tools, predicted the length, looked up different measurements on different types of whales and measured things in our classroom that showed us a representation of different lengths of whales. Then we talked about other object such as a school bus. 'How many buses do you think it would take to be the same length as a whale?' It was a fun lesson and the 1st graders loved it.

Samantha Woods Samantha Woods 90 Points

For math you can take the shapes in geometry and make a prediction about how many shapes can make a cow or a person. For social studies you can take a famous person and the students can try to make their inventions. You can also bring in an invention and the students can try to make it work by looking online and experimenting on it. In Language class, you can figure out how people talk by doing an experiment.

 

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