Asserts the importance of studying legal systems and traditions of other nations. Provides five rationale statements for including comparative legal studies in law-related education. Features the articles in this special theme issue on law in world cultures. (CFR)

Describes six activities from the "History Alive" program. These include an interactive slide lecture on the Great Depression, a photographic analysis regarding Mexican and Southwest culture, an experiential exercise concerning life on the assembly line, collages on Chinese belief systems, a response group on women's rights, and poetry writing.…

A class of fourth-graders-turned-film-producers created an animated video about national parks. The experience helped students acquire academic skills and knowledge, use technology meaningfully, feel confident about themselves and their learning, value cooperation, understand the creative process, sustain a vision, and have fun in school. (MLH)

Summarizes a schoolwide unit, organized around the ballad of John Henry, that integrated visual art, music, dance, and drama with ecological issues, Mountain Cultural heritage, and labor history. Gives background information on the Mountain Culture and the story of John Henry, while also discussing the students' reactions and interpretations…

The Center for California Studies, a unit of California State University, Sacramento, focuses on governance issues and depends on state funds for administering four fellowship programs. It exists in a borderland between academe and state government, public policy think tanks and interdisciplinary studies, graduate education and career training.…

Describes an award-winning multidisciplinary, multimedia unit on Native Americans that was developed through participation in the Earthwatch Institute programs. Explains the Earthwatch program; collaboration between library media specialists and classroom teachers; and use of The Big6 process for information problem solving and the development of…

In response to growing numbers of school-based and -linked integrated-service programs, university partnerships among schools of education, health, and social work are forming to prepare professionals with necessary skills, knowledge, and dispositions to work collaboratively in urban neighborhoods. An interdisciplinary training program at an…

Describes a team-taught college course designed to develop philosophical literacy among students as groundwork for future humanities courses. Unifying motif was "dialog" between faculty from different areas of expertise; the concept of philosophy as dialog; and the student-teacher relationship as dialog. Discusses course design, lessons learned,…

Discusses the actions and approaches advanced during the 1996 Summer Colloquium, "Art and Ecology: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Curriculum." Illustrates how action-oriented inquiry makes learning relevant to all people through exploring the poetry of place. The colloquium identified community ecological issues that could be examined through…

Suggests some approaches to meeting the requirements for study of "cultural process" in geography in New Zealand. Provides some guidelines for defining a cultural process and discusses possible teaching units. Outlines a conceptual and pedagogical map to follow in developing these units using transportation development as an example.…

Describes a collaboration between a university education professor and a team of four middle school teachers to create and implement an interdisciplinary thematic unit of study about the Caribbean region. Describes how the unit dealt with language arts, math, science, and social studies areas, and describes alternative forms of assessment used to…

Outlines a lesson examining architectural and social history by investigating the changing uses of color in public and private buildings from 1830 through 1920. Describes several activities including examining historical black-and-white photographs of buildings and attempting to determine their true color and examining the chemistry of paint. (MJP)

Reports on a teacher-education course that emphasized the use of the visual arts in promoting content area reading. Local art museum personnel and teacher-education faculty identified works that could invoke discussions in certain content areas of specialization. Students used these as a basis for their papers. (MJP)

Profiles a course that challenges college seniors to gain new perspectives, skills, experiences, and insights into their own creative and imaginative processes. The course uses the work of Joseph Cornell who constructed enigmatic, box-like assemblages from found objects. Students construct their own boxes and consider future applications of this…

A Virginia science and technology high school restructured its ninth-grade curriculum by clustering three core courses in an integrated program. Students work with resource managers at Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge to gather data on species inhabiting the area. They prepare well-researched reports and present them to peers, faculty, and…