Interdisciplinary Education in Earth Sciences and Sustainability

Interdisciplinary Education in Earth Sciences and Sustainability

Increasingly, educational scholars are observing the distinctive cognitive value in classroom projects that cross disciplinary boundaries and drive students to employ multiple learning strategies in completing academic tasks. This denotes the ambition to render curricular procedure and academic content according to the broader needs that must be fulfilled as one moves forward on one's academic journey. Accordingly, the approach taken to academics in this project proposal will center on the refinement of more generally applicable skill sets such as interpersonal communication, team orientation and learning through practical usage of emergent skills in science and mathematics disciplines. This approach will be modeled in accordance with the Common Core State Standards authored by the State of New York.

The project designed here would place students in groups, designated each group to study and create a presentation on a specific ecosystem. Possible selections would include the rainforest, northern woodlands, marshlands, marine reefs, deserts and a host of other options. The project would dispatch groups to create historical accounts, wildlife profiles, delineation of environmental threats and plans for protection of the habitats selected.

Objectives:

The objectives of the project proposed here are threefold. First and foremost will be the instruction of the primary discipline, which in this case will be Earth Sciences for 4th grade students. This objective includes the provision of elementary and introductory education in ecology. This objective is supplemented by two interdisciplinary objectives. The first of these is instruction in critical learning, communicating and problem-solving skills, including reading, writing, historical reflection and cultural reflection. The second of these is instruction in citizenship, with a focus on environmentalism, conservation and sustainability providing an overarching course focus and a directive for many activities and tasks.

Expected Outcomes:

Expected outcomes, especially in terms of critical learning skills, are driven by the New York State Common Core Standards, which provide a framework for the increased challenge and aptitude correlated to progressive interdisciplinary reading. To this point, "the Standards define a three-part model for determining how easy or difficult a particular text is to read as well as grade-by-grade specifications for increasing text complexity in successive years of schooling." (NYSED, p. 4) The three parts require a Qualitative, Quantitative and Task-Drive evaluation of texts. These evaluations inform the expected outcome of progress during a project that would incorporate increasingly challenging readings and concepts across a two-week duration.

Grading Policy:

Student evaluation should be based primarily on more dynamic modes of assessment than simple testing. Though testing and composition remain important bases for evaluating learning improvement, Moore (2005) indicates that "new models of interdisciplinary education promote student teamwork in a shift toward transformative, experiential, and collaborative learning." (p. 77) This means that group compositions, and class participation will be primarily used to evaluate students during the project with a final group presentation constituting the largest part of one's grade.