All Interdisciplinary resources

Journal Article

Socioscientific Modeling: Helping Students See Systems and Understand Messy Issues

In this article we present a strategy to help students unpack complex, socioscientific issues. We outline a 90-minute learning experience where students are asked to explore the complicated cause and effect relationships that shaped the course of the...

By Eric Kirk, Troy Sadler, Zhen Xu, Jamie Elsner, Li Ke, Laura Zangori, Rebecca Lesnefsky

Interdisciplinary Teaching Strategies Three-Dimensional Learning

Journal Article

Sensing in Animals and Robots: Collaborative, Transdisciplinary Learning in an Undergraduate Science Course

Transdisciplinary learning—where students develop and apply knowledge from multiple disciplines to solve open-ended problems—is necessary to prepare students for the most pressing real-world problems. Because transdisciplinary education often req...

By Anna DeJarnette, Stephanie Rollmann, Dieter Vanderelst, John Layne, Anna Hutchinson

Postsecondary Biology Engineering Interdisciplinary Robotics STEM Technology

Journal Article

Development of a Problem Based Learning (PBL) Course at a Health Professions University – “Interdisciplinary Perspectives of an Infectious Disease - Malaria”

Faculty at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS University) recognized the potential benefits for collaborative teaching and learning across disciplines. Research and development of an “Interprofessional Case Learning Projec...

By Nalini Broadbelt, Nevila Jana, Katrina Van Dellen, Michelle Young, Kristen Petersen

Biology Curriculum Interdisciplinary Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Concentrating on Cross-Disciplinary Connections: Using reaction rates to help students make connections between chemistry and biology.

Too often, science courses (e.g, biology, chemistry, and physics) are disconnected from one another. When this happens, students often don’t see how the different disciplines relate to one another. For example, we have heard students ask, “Which...

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High School Biology Chemistry Crosscutting Concepts Interdisciplinary Physics Science and Engineering Practices

Journal Article

Multiple Representations and Multiple Expressions: Simulating Enzymatic Reactions to Showcase Learning

The purpose of this article is to describe a lesson aimed at teaching students the function of enzymes in order to obtain mastery of NGSS Standard HS-LS1-2. The lesson is designed to engage learners through the frameworks of the 5E process and sensem...

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High School Biology Chemistry Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Labs NGSS Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Using Photo-journals to Support Real-World Connections to Classroom Content

Many teachers are asked by their students how the science content they are learning in class matters in the "real world." Although these connections may be clear to expert teachers, students often require additional support and scaffolding to see how...

High School Biology Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

A Solar Panel Modeling Project for Chemistry

The Solar Panel Modeling Project challenged 10th-grade chemistry students to apply knowledge of Atomic Models to explain electricity generation in a solar panel, deepening their scientific literacy about climate solutions. Here, I describe the proje...

High School Chemistry Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Labs NGSS Physical Science Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Bookending STEM Lessons: Co-teaching with an Education Librarian for Elementary Picture-Perfect Success

No abstract required....

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Elementary Interdisciplinary Literacy Teacher Preparation Teaching Strategies

Journal Article

Bugging Out with Bugscope

Looking for something REALLY exciting, creepy-crawly, accessible and pertains to phenomenon-based/ storyline-based NGSS? Bugscope is a free educational project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. K-12 classrooms have an opportunity to ...

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Elementary Biology Citizen Science Interdisciplinary Technology

Journal Article

Reading Like a Scientist: Teaching Students to Strategically Read Multimodal Science Texts

Calls for disciplinary literacy instruction in elementary schools encourage teachers to provide authentic opportunities for students to read and write like scientists. Enacting disciplinary literacy with problem-based learning practices to inquire ab...

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Early Childhood Elementary Instructional Materials Interdisciplinary Literacy Teaching Strategies