In this paper, the authors describe how two institutions are helping their undergraduate biology students build quantitative competencies. Incorporation of quantitative skills and reasoning in biology are framed through a discussion of two cases that both concern introductory biology courses, but differ in the complexity of the mathematics and the…

Integrated learning is well established in education, primarily in the classroom subjects. This article describes settings and ways for extending integrated instruction to physical education and music. Benefits of these connections include reinforcing content and better meeting the needs of students whose intelligences include the bodily…

This article discusses how to promote oral language development through science. The authors describe how they incorporate academic "talk strategies" into science lessons in a nonintrusive and meaningful manner. These talk strategies are adapted from the "Avenues" (2007) curriculum for English learners (ELs), which gives examples of cooperative…

Funded by innovative programs at the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Richmond faculty in biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science teamed up to offer first- and second-year students the opportunity to contribute to vibrant, interdisciplinary research projects. The result was…

In January 2006, the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) instituted a cross-disciplinary program in international business (IB). Business communication is a major component of the program. Moreover, the need for business communication in other languages contributed greatly to the cross-disciplinary nature of the program. This…

The chemical information instruction and environmental science which is incorporated into a first-year organic chemistry laboratory is presented. The students are charged with devised search strategies, conducting online searches and limiting the project scope to ocean systems. The laboratory serves to provide for search strategy development…

What would happen if schools offered all students the same challenges and opportunities that some schools now offer only their "best" students? The Southern Regional Education Board addressed that question in 1987, when it developed the High Schools That Work Model. Blending challenging college-preparatory content with modern vocational and…

As a newly appointed joint hire in the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Natural Sciences and the College of Education, Department of Middle/Secondary Education, my charge was to bridge the communication gap between these two departments and colleges. To meet this challenge, I developed four collaborative projects between the Natural…

We present an approach for integrating instruction of scientific writing and reading into undergraduate science courses, inspired by the pedagogical theory of cognitive apprenticeship. We demonstrate its implementation and describe a study of students' feedback that enabled us to elicit students' difficulties and fine-tune the next application…

To enable junior high school students to relate the processes of reading, writing, and thinking through deliberate instruction and extensive classroom practice, a skills extension project was devised to develop original materials linked to the content areas of English and social studies. Another phase of the project provided for inservice training…

The Intercurricular Studies Division at Miami-Dade Community College offers a two-semester interdisciplinary, experiential approach to general education. This division is autonomous and maintains its own full-time faculty. Its major teaching unit is the module, an interdependent component of four instructors with experience in communications,…

The Post-16 Strategies project coordinated by Dr. Johanna Lasonen from 1996 to 1998 was chiefly concerned with four post-16 education strategies: (1) "vocational enhancement"; (2) "mutual enrichment"; (3) "linkages;" and (4) "unification." These four strategies to promote parity of esteem between vocational…

The co-authors have been co-Principal Investigators on two large-scale National Science Foundation-funded teacher enhancement projects for the past eight years. One of the projects focused on middle and high schools and the second focused on the elementary school. The design of each was different, reflecting the differing natures of the…

As part of Project Open (see related documents listed below), unified arts and industrial arts curricula were developed and implemented at Ona Junior High School in West Virginia. The unified arts program combines the four subject areas of art, home economics, music, and industrial arts. It is a two-year required course for all seventh and eighth…