Thursday, July 19, 2012

Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning


Teaching the importance, to high school students, of bacteria and virus in our lives can often be lost solely based of the fact that they cannot be detected by our senses, excepting of course, the aftermath of their effect on our bodies or by tasting their impact on food sources. Yet, they are so important and can have such an impact on humans and the world around us.  For example, how do you impress upon students the rate at which bacteria multiple? Or how do you illustrate the beauty yet the devastating nature of virus?  In searching the internet for lesson plans, ideas and more, I went full circle and landed at YouTube knowing the visual, in combination with verbal explanation and musical accompaniment might be a means of demonstrating the beauty and frightening nature of bacteria and virus. The links below illustrate the multiplication factors of bacteria and the “beauty and the beast” of virus.



How would I use them: Being a huge Prezi fan, these links would dovetail nicely into a teaching segment combining content standards with video illustration. By using the links about, the lesson is appealing to the oral learner in the bacteria voice over and music and the visual learner just because the video is amazing, real and engaging,

What are the challenges and value of interdisciplinary teaching and learning: Interdisciplinary teaching and learning is an amazing concept and tool.  The value is student learning.  It is an excellent way to create variety in lessons, engage all types of student learners that might not otherwise be engaged and exploit the creativity of your students. The challenge is having the expertise to incorporate the alternative disciplines and the time necessary to construct the use of interdisciplinary teaching. In an Academy environment, like Mount Diablo High School, collaboration between teachers in different subjects (for example, science, art and English) in the teaching of a particular unit is an excellent way to simplify the teaching concept while minimizing the impact of “doing it all” by one discipline.


Commented on Ashley and Eddy's blog, looked at Christina Mignano.



2 comments:

  1. Marcy,
    It's refreshing to read your blog and feel validated about the time needed to construct interdisciplinary lessons. I am not a seasoned teacher, yet I found in my student teaching placements, when trying to be innovative and develop cross-curricular lessons, I needed to do more research and lesson prep than when teaching a single subject. In an elementary school setting it is a challenge to collaborate across subjects. That said however, perhaps those teachers who have strengths in particular subjects could give PD's to help find resources for interdisciplinary lessons.

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  2. Hi Marcy,

    The virus video is incredible! The music does an wonderful job evoking amazement and fear of viruses. Personally, I would definitely need to brush up on my knowledge of viral infections in order to explain what was going on at each part of the video. I think i noticed some sort of exocytosis of the virus and endocytosis of the cell? I could definitely see a worksheet accompanying the video to guide students, and incorporating how the music made them feel at certain parts.

    You make a valid point about "doing it all." Even though I will be going into my fourth year teaching, I often feel overwhelmed with simply getting the necessities done. I hope that as I begin to find my groove teaching, I can begin to take on more challenges like interdisciplinary teaching.

    Thanks for the great idea!

    Ashley

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