The marginalization of social studies has led to many questions about how elementary teachers include social studies in their curriculum. Using a survey distributed to Texas teachers, this study explores the instructional strategies, integration emphasis, and content area instructional time utilized in the elementary classroom. Through a…

The ability to engage in informed decision-making about socioscientific issues (SSI) is an important aspect of scientific literacy. Although science knowledge and practice are necessary for developing solutions to SSI, additional skills are also needed to attend to the complex social, political, economic, and ethical concerns of such issues.…

Natural phenomena and scientific issues are intrinsically interdisciplinary. Students need to study a variety of academic disciplines in the natural sciences to explain a phenomenon or its related problems. Our goal in the current study was to examine the epistemological foundation of students' interdisciplinary understanding of carbon cycling…

The purpose of this book is to assist post-traditional students to achieve success in the Occupational, Workforce, and Leadership Studies (OWLS) Department and develop their individualized pathway to earn the interdisciplinary Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) degree at Texas State University. Applied baccalaureate degrees incorporate…

This paper offers lessons learned from a partnership between the Texas A&M School of Innovation (I-School) and the Texas A&M Educational Technology program. Taking on the I-School as a "client," online graduate students in an Advanced Instructional Design course spent a semester designing the first of a set of online educational…

With the realities of standards-based accountability, it is imperative to model and demonstrate for students how subject areas and teaching methods transcend across traditional boundaries. In an effort to prepare future social studies educators to teach for global awareness and to meaningfully integrate critical literacy skills into their…

Ideal for faculty and administrators looking to blend business education and the liberal arts, this toolkit combines exemplary syllabi from 26 leading institutions with step-by-step strategies to advocate successfully for curricular innovation. Conceived with comprehensiveness in mind, these resources cover both inspiration and implementation for…

In this paper we identify some of the issues and problems that we confronted while developing a new, one-semester, interdepartmental, multidisciplinary capstone design course. We implemented the following changes to the pre-existing capstone design course: (1) Utilized a website to enhance information transfer, (2) Modularized the course and…

This past year, Baylor University created a program to reward some of its best teachers and challenge them to do something truly daring: teach their students how to think--not just how to think "about" course material, but rather how to think "through" the material. The idea is to help students learn how teachers, as…

Researchers have found that middle school students undergo developmental changes that require unique educational structures and support. As a result, experts have suggested a number of specific strategies for organizing middle schools in order to best meet students' needs. This Information Capsule summarizes middle school redesign initiatives that…

iSMART (Integration of Science, Mathematics, and Reflective Teaching) Program is an online science and mathematics integrated graduate program for middle school teachers across the state of Texas. As part of a large design-based research project, this paper describes the initial stages of the design process of the iSMART program for its first…

This article describes how a 26-panel altarpiece that once adorned a 15th-century Spanish cathedral inspired faculty members and students at Southern Methodist University to spend a semester dissecting the piece in a multidisciplinary course that featured songs, floats, videos, and painting. The course sprang out of a discussion Mark Roglan,…

This document outlines the aerospace-aviation education program of the State of Texas. In this publication the course structures have been revised to fit the quarter system format of secondary schools in Texas. The four courses outlined here have been designed for students who will be consumers of aerospace products, spinoffs, and services or who…

This is the fourth report in a series of five reports resulting from the Texas College and Career Readiness Initiative (TCCRI) established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) under contract with the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC). The purpose of the TCCRI is the Facilitation of the Development and Implementation…

The document outlines the social studies program for grades K-12 in Texas. It is presented in five sections. Section I provides an overview of the program. Curriculum design, instructional resources, and professional growth and development are discussed. Section II outlines goals for public school education in Texas and Section III outlines social…