The inspiration for this article was not conceived over lunch, but more specifically over the box in which the lunches were packaged. Five colleagues brainstormed ideas for teaching a unit on trees for the third grade that would fit in our boxes. The disciplines involved were art, children's literature, science, social studies, and technology.…

David Packard, chairman of the board of trustees of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and an engineer by training and profession, was personally steeped in scientific method and committed to the belief that public resources should be invested in programs on the basis of evidence. He extended this standard to the foundation's investments and…

The understanding of expert knowledge as shared, distributed and contextualised has gained ground. The case description in this article focuses on developing expert knowledge in a situation in which both knowledge needs and the definition of expertise fields changed radically in the public sector within a social crisis. The article examines an…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to use ecological footprint analysis (EFA) in an interdisciplinary graduate level course on sustainable development to better how education can facilitate learning and transform the perceptions and behavior of class participants. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses an untreated control group research…

The department of geography and environmental studies of the University of South Africa recently played a pivotal role in implementing an inter- and multidisciplinary undergraduate programme in environmental management. This programme prepares students for entry-level occupations, and equips them with the knowledge, skills and values needed to…

Purpose--Environmental assessment (EA) is a proactive planning tool designed to consider the ecological, cultural, socio-political and economic impacts of potential projects, making it a major tool for achieving sustainable development. Meaningful EA requires a bridging of the natural sciences with the social sciences to broaden understanding of…

Scholars and professionals committed to fostering sustainable development have urged a re-examination of the curriculum and restructuring of research in engineering-focused institutions of higher learning. This article will address the following themes and questions: How can multi- and trans-disciplinary teaching and research coexist in a…

An original concept for a Web-based role play "SurfingGlobalChange" is proposed on the basis of multi-year interdisciplinary teaching experience and constructivist pedagogy. Underlying didactic orientation is towards self-guided learning, acquiring socially compatible "competence to act" in a globalised world, self-optimising social procedures…

In this article, the author describes the summer institute which she planned through her involvement with the Institute for Freedom Studies at Northern Kentucky University, whose purpose is to promote interdisciplinary research, teaching and community outreach grounded in the study of the Underground Railroad. The purpose of the institute was to…

Interventions to address current, future, and potential public health dilemmas, such as air pollution, urban sprawl, brown field reclamation, and threats of intentional toxic exposures would benefit from a synergy between the disciplines of environmental health and health education. A comparison between the Protocol for Assessing Community…

Objective: Psychotherapy and biological psychiatry remain divided in psychiatry residency curricula. Behavioral neurobiology and neuropsychiatry provide a systems-level framework that allows teachers to integrate biology, psychodynamics, and psychology. Method: The authors detail the underlying assumptions and outline of a neural systems-based…

The papers presented at the 2004 Academy meetings can be thought of as pieces from jigsaw puzzles. While the employment of this metaphor over the years has been useful, we may be ready for a new image, one that is both more accurate and inspiring. We can picture ourselves working at different locations along a river bank. Some of us work upstream,…

The literature urges business schools to change their undergraduate curricula in response to changes in the models and methods currently used by corporate America. Critics contend that business schools should place more emphasis on teamwork and integrative models. Business schools are urged to "break down the silos" between functional subjects by…

We developed, piloted, and evaluated a successful model for integrating other disciplinary perspectives while learning a specific discipline. Faculty who taught first-year biology and mathematics courses produced examples of how these disciplines complement each other. These faculty presented students with the connecting threads that integrate…

This article describes an active learning method for the teaching of physical sciences and mathematics to engineers. After defining the challenges involved in the training of engineers, we shall describe the answers provided by our method, "learning by doing" (named "Apprentissage Par l"Action" in French), by introducing…