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STEM
Page 12 Electronic Edition: www.teachingtodaymn.com

From Theme Parks to Survivor Island

“Because we team teach in the same formula.
room for a lot of the day, we use our time “Then we do our speaking skills,” says
and space flexibly,” says Lindsay. “We might Shelley. “The students create a presentation
be together for part of it and then go to an and give that speech like we’re a mini UN
adjoining room for a bit and then come back. conference. By the end of the trimester, we
There are generally just fewer transitions for worked on our reading our writing and our
our kids. It’s all just interconnected.” speaking competencies alongside our social
studies competencies.”
“I Survived Survivor Island”
The interconnectedness of the learning Differences and Advantages
really pushes students. It also provides the This way of teaching and learning has
platform for doing high interest, engaging some clear advantages for this team. One is
work and projects. time savings.
The second trimester for 8th grade “If you think about Shelley’s example
Humanities is one big unit called Survivor where they’re doing their English Language
Island. The geography components include Arts around these social studies topics, you
learning about different landforms, different can actually save a little bit of time doing
climate regions, and weather patterns. While that,” observes Lindsay. “They can choose
students learn the geography concepts, exactly what they want to focus on and
they are working on summarizing skills in spend a majority of their time on that.”
English Language Arts by reading stories of Because the teachers spend so much of
Spring Lake Park Schools “My husband, a scientist, never does science people who have survived in different cli- their time planning and preparing together,
The 8th graders are huddled around in the absence of math…and he writes mates. they get to know each other’s curriculum.
giant graph papers scattered with colorful reports and communicates with people. He “There’s a survival story of some- “I really know the math curriculum
shapes. The shapes are the rides and shops is interdisciplinary at his job. Any opportu- body who crashed in the Andes Mountains. quite a bit,” says Lindsay, “which means that
they’ve designed for their amusement park. nity we have to do this with kids helps them There’s a survival story of somebody who I can always reinforce it so the students are
They’ve imagined each feature, calculated be more prepared for that realistic future.” got stuck in the ocean,” says Shelley. getting extra math in science just because I
area, perimeter, and entrance coordinates. When they have the basics, students are know what’s going on. I think when we’re
Next, they will apply physics concepts to Team Approach tasked with developing an island with land- siloed in our individual subject areas some-
design and model their rollercoaster. forms, climate regions and weather patterns. times that piece is lacking.”
A group whose theme is video games This group of teachers has been working They make a population density map based There’s also a clear advantage for indi-
is discussing a big blank rectangle on with this team of 7th and 8th graders all year on what they’ve learned about where people vidualizing support.
their graph paper. It’s their last ride, and – the yellow team. would live on the island. “Because we’re comfortable with each
they can’t agree on a name for it. They’ve They have “Inquiry” which is a blend- “An example is that people live by other’s content, we can work a little more
designed Sonic Drop, Rocket Rollercoaster ing of science and math, and they have rivers. People don’t live on top of tall moun- individually with kids when we need to,”
(which they describe as “exhilarating”) and “Humanities” which is a blending of English tains where it’s too cold. . . that type of says Shelley.
several other rides but they are stuck on this Language Arts and social studies. Some- thing,” explains Shelley. Students are also able to see connec-
last element. times they have subject specific lessons but When their islands are complete with tions between skills and subject areas more
This larger team of students has a group as much as possible they try to overlap. data, students write a report to the United clearly.
of four core teachers for English Language “It might be as simple as making math Nations. The scenario is the discovery of a “We used to hear a lot more ‘why do
Arts, social studies, math, and science. The problems that have examples that are from new island. Students write an official report I care if my paragraph is right? It doesn’t
teachers work in pairs to teach interdisciplin- science or the science topics that they’re to document whether or not people could
ary classes that bring the essential concepts learning,” says Lindsay. “But it also extends live on the island using their essay writing Continued on Page 13
of each discipline together in their design of into large performance assessments (like
student work. the amusement parks) that involve pieces of
For the amusement park project, stu- both math and science at the same time.”
dents are using knowledge and skills they English Language Arts and social
have learned throughout the year to design studies is Humanities - a natural mix because
the park. Their graph paper design had English doesn’t necessarily have topics. The
required many different math skills. Next class reads, writes and speaks focused on the
up, groups will be using ideas from science social studies topics for 7th and 8th grade.
– force and motion – for their rollercoaster “In 7th grade, it’s American history for
designs and models. social studies, so when we’re in the Civil
I think the project is a good experience. War unit, we’re reading about the Civil War.
It’s fun,” says one from the video game We’re looking at Civil War era poetry,” says
crew. “You put in all you learned for the Shelley Anderson, English Language Arts
whole year.” teacher. “It’s a little trickier in 8th grade
His teammate offers another opinion, “I when it’s Geography but we’ve found some
kind of hate it, because it makes me think!” ways to make some really good connec-
They all laugh. They will need their tions.”
collaboration and communication skills to With subjects combined, the team
land that last ride. works within bigger blocks of time through-
“The whole idea is that this is more real out the day. This allows for lessons that take
world and authentic when we do school this a longer time or a shorter time to flow more
way,” says Lindsay Leet, science teacher. naturally than a more time-bound schedule.