In November 1997, the National Institute for Science Education (NISE) brought together for a two-day conference faculty members of NISE, individuals who have special expertise or experience pertaining to interdisciplinary collaboration and problem solving and representatives of research projects addressing the topic of interdisciplinarity. The…

With regard to the acceptance of human-computer interfaces, immersion represents one of the most important methods for attracting young visitors into museum exhibitions. Exciting and diversely presented content as well as intuitive, natural and human-like interfaces are indispensable to bind users to an interactive system with real and digital…

This study documents the type of support and professional growth science teachers gained as they implemented technologies from summer institutes. Teachers and staff maintained communication after the program through a telecommunications network. This study involved 91 high school science teachers from across the country who participated in an NSF…

This paper addresses nontraditional methods and issues involved in presenting a productive undergraduate political science course that provides the knowledge, skills, and abilities to aid good citizenship and a variety of career choices. This educators incorporated team teaching, cross training, original research, and small group work, and invited…

This curriculum unit requires students to use science, geography, and language arts skills in studying the weather. Students are asked to report on weather anomalies and are provided with background information, detailed instructions, online resources, and reflection questions. The teacher's guide describes the unit's purpose, correlation to…

The Master of Arts program in Communication (MAC) at Wichita State University is integrated and interdisciplinary. The assumption is that all professional communicators engage in gathering and analyzing information, and designing and delivering messages. The program, therefore, seeks to prepare students to engage in these activities across…

Folk art tells the story of many generations and reflects cultures everywhere. It is a wonderful tool for introducing students to world cultures and traditions. This book brings the world of folk art into the classroom with extension activities that integrate art, social studies, science, language arts, and music. Organized into three sections,…

The three lessons in this interdisciplinary curriculum unit invite students to explore the meaning of landmarks, places, people, and ideas that distinguish their environment. Lessons include: (1) "Looking Close to Home"; (2) "Moving Out into the Community"; and (3) "Celebrating Landmarks." Each lesson contains student…

This book uses a detective approach to teach about environmental issues. Student sleuths investigate many potential causes of fish dying including chlorine pollution, acid rain, erosion and sediment pollution, predator-prey relationships, phosphate pollution and algal blooms, and oil pollution. The text provides students the opportunity to grapple…

This study presents a detailed description and an interpretation of efforts made to prepare prospective upper elementary/middle level teachers to make connections between science and mathematics. The focus of this study is placed on the undergraduate teacher candidates' senior year in which they take science methods in the fall and participate in…

This activity-centered approach to teaching geography to elementary students is based on children's literature. Methodologies for teaching the themes of geography involving children's books and stories are given. The book is organized into five chapters: (1) "Geographic Literacy in Curriculum" gives instructions for using the book and provides…

This project began with a list of the kinds of topics that would be of most interest in a study of the old west. Some of the topics that were mentioned for the project included Lewis and Clark, Native American tribes and nations, early pioneers, the fur trade, Texas independence, the Pony Express, homesteaders, gunfighters, the Indian wars, and…

The SENNAPE (Software Engineering and Neural Networks Applied to Physics and Electricity) project has been putting together the European and the Brazilian industries towards neural processing developments in the fields of high-energy physics and electricity. It is a multi-disciplinary international collaboration with the participation of different…

This book consists of two complete units on the ideas and concepts of science fiction. The first unit is created for lower elementary students and the second one is for upper elementary grade levels. The units are designed for gifted students and encourage students to be responsible for their own education. Each unit is based on an…

This book offers ideas to help teachers balance their literacy curriculum. It includes a flexible lesson plan format, literacy-based ideas, authors' birthday calendars, a special events calendar, a comprehensive theme-based book list, a teacher's view of assessment, charts and reproducibles, and pocket-pouch folders for storing loose papers and…