Interdisciplinary approaches do not merely satisfy an abstract longing; in post-educational life--especially in a secular, Western, post-modern culture--young people must confront complex issues that transcend any one discipline. Educational systems accordingly have a duty to offer frameworks for understanding this complexity that go beyond any…

Multidisciplinary courses are being developed at a number of US colleges and universities to highlight the connections between the rise or fall of world civilizations and the sustainable or unsustainable uses of soil and water resources. The content presented in these courses is complex because it includes concepts from disciplines as varied as…

Traditional lectures generally force students to play a passive role in the classroom. In an effort to promote active learning, we added discussion sections to a large lecture hall course. Field trips, student journals, and group-based assignments, in particular, enhanced the learning experience. To ensure the success of the new format, course…

Primarily a collection of lesson plans covering various topics in geography, this document is divided into seven sections. The first section includes three short papers on geography and its place in the curriculum. The second section deals with teaching map skills, evaluating computer software to be used in teaching geography, and ideas for field…

The successful integration of ecology and social studies in this sixth grade program offers students a chance to become aware of themselves and their immediate surroundings, both in the classroom and in the community. This model and the suggested learning activities can be successfully adapted for use at any of the other elementary levels.…