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You're Not In Math Class Anymore:
Integrating Math Across the Curriculum

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Are you having trouble integrating math with literature, geography, art, or music? Discover how one teacher brought her love of running into the classroom and, in the process, integrated all areas of her curriculum. Also: Internet sites for integrating math with literature, history, science, geography, health, art, and music!

Math! Math! Math!

Educational research -- not to mention experience and common sense -- tells us that students learn best and make better sense of what they're learning when they can make connections with previous learning or with different areas of learning...
Carol Goodrow, a first grade teacher and an avid runner, knows about the value of making connections. She has connected her curriculum by integrating running into almost every subject area -- and her students are reaping the benefits.

Mrs. Goodrow's first graders at Parker Memorial School in Tolland, Connecticut, took off running in September. By May, Goodrow told Education World, all the students could run a mile, had completed a mile fun run, and loved to write about running. According to Goodrow, many of the students started writing in their journals after running practice. Even those who had been reluctant writers loved the running practices so much they wanted to write about them.

 

"Also," Goodrow added, "they couldn't have any Gatorade until they wrote in their journals."

But, as Goodrow told Education World, the benefits weren't limited to physical fitness and writing. She saw improvement in math skills as well. For example, during year-end benchmark testing, the class completed sections on numeration more quickly, yet scored as well or better, than past classes.

In addition, Goodrow reported that many students demonstrated a better understanding of fractions. "My fraction committee, a group of the most capable math students, computed the class's [running] mileage on their own, working with 1/2's, 1/4's and 3/4's. They represented the fractions by models, but they could also compute them in their heads."

One of the class's favorite activities, however, was their ongoing "Trek Across America." In this project, Goodrow, her class, their families, and runner Don Allison set off on a virtual race from Boston to San Diego. Each time the participants ran, they kept track of their distances in personal mileage logs. As they progressed along the trek's 3,252 miles, the students traced the route, exploring 14 key cities.

Reports of the trek, as well as many other class activities, can be found on the class's Web site, Kids Running.com. According to Goodrow, this site is built so that kids can be authors, columnists, and more. There are sections where teachers can use running-related data, such as the voting booth data bank, to build math lessons. "It's also a site," she said, "where kids can practice reading stories written by other kids. And of course it encourages fitness and healthy attitudes."

Education World asked Goodrow if she had any suggestions to offer other teachers on how they can make learning more relevant. "Choose something you love," she said, "and integrate it into your curriculum."

But first, you might want to choose some of the activities below and use them to integrate Math across your curriculum.

 

MATH AND YOUR CURRICULUM

 

Math and Literature

Another good source for ideas on integrating math is Carol Hurst's Math and Children's Literature site. Though geared toward students in Pre-K through Grade 2, many of the activities here can be adapted for use with older students. For example, the article Time and Time Travel Fantasies, reprinted from Teaching K-8 Magazine, recommends setting up a classroom clock display and allowing students to take the clocks apart (and, hopefully, put them back together again) as they learn to tell time. The site includes a list of books with time-related themes, which you can use to accompany and/or inspire the activities.

Extension: You might extend the activities with older elementary students by setting up a clock repair shop, rather than a display, and having students prepare estimates and invoices for needed repairs. Students might also prepare written reports about the ways in which people have told time throughout history. One interesting site about gnomonics, the art of telling time using the sun's shadow, can be found at Cannon-Mania. Scroll down and click Sundial to learn about the sun dial cannon.

Math and History

At Mathematicians Commemorated on the Eiffel Tower, students in grades 3-12 will discover the names of French scientists and mathematicians that were placed on plaques in the Tower more than 100 years ago. Encourage students to visit The Official Site of The Eiffel Tower to learn more about this historic French landmark.

Extension: Following the tour, have each student return to the Mathematicians Commemorated on the Eiffel Tower site to read the biography of one of the mathematicians whose name is on the tower. Create a chart listing the name and major accomplishment of each mathematician. You might also encourage students to add to the chart the names of other mathematicians.

Math and Science

After your middle- and high school students have toured the Eiffel Tower (see "History and Math" above) and perhaps helped build the Tower of the 3rd millenium, they may be ready to participate in Hands-On Bridge Building. This project, in which students use spaghetti, glue, and their knowledge of science and math to construct a weight-bearing bridge, begins with a lesson on scientific and mathematical vocabulary. Then, students create designs, reduce them to scale, prepare cost analyses, and build and test their bridges. The site includes quizzes, worksheets, and bonus and extension activities.

 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

 

  • Online Math Applications A ThinkQuest Junior site that includes discussions, questions, and quizzes to help students link math to music, history, science, travel, and investing.
  • Fractals A unit on fractals for elementary and middle school students.
  • History Topics Index Lots of fascinating information about a number of topics related to the history of mathematics.
  • The Chaos Game A game about chaos and fractals for students in middle school and above.

 

Article by Linda Starr
Education World®
Copyright © 1999 Education World

 

Updated 04/26/2010