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Model Wagons and Integrated Curriculum - ST Week 6.2

One of my favorite things about my student teaching internship is the opportunity to see how well the quality integration of social studies and the English Language Arts can work in a single humanities classroom. Growing up in a public school district that taught social studies, ELA, most STEAM subjects, and the social sciences as separate curriculums, I was inexperienced with the implementation of an integrated humanities curriculum from both the student and teacher perspectives. Even more, I was skeptical of how successful a humanities curriculum could be without sacrificing essential social studies or ELA concepts and standards. My time at EMS thus far has proven to me that with purposeful planning, expert content knowledge, generous time management, sincere dedication, and crafty unit activities and assessments, teaching the humanities is entirely possible at the secondary education level. However biased my opinion may be based on my student teaching experience this semester, I have also discovered that as a future educator, I prefer a humanities approach to teaching social studies and ELA. For me, I’d even go as far as saying that combining the humanities subjects into a single humanities course is ideal for schools embracing the middle school philosophy.

Already exposed to the successful curriculum integration within EMS humanities classrooms, I was delighted to learn that this week, Mr. J and I would further integrate our course of study by guiding students through a major Western Expansion project: wagon building. Using one of two sets of life size wagon descriptions, students will be creating miniature wagon replicas that must successfully trek across an obstacle course meant to mimic the real challenges of the Oregon Trail: deep rivers, high mountain ranges, grainy deserts, and rough terrain all around. The project not only requires students to apply their social studies knowledge of the Oregon Trail experience to anticipate possible obstacles for their wagon, but it also demands the accurate practice of math and science concepts for students to reach grading proficiency. Students must draw blueprints that correctly scale down a life size wagon to their desired replica dimensions, and many students have already discovered that they will need to make sure their wagon is either tall enough to stay above water or buoyant enough to float in our mock river. Nova’s eighth graders will not see the obstacle course until our wagon competition day, so any test runs they complete for damage control will be on their own accord. On Friday (weather permitting), Mr. J and I will use fishing rods to reel the wagons across the course at a steady pace, leaving stirring and overall wagon survival up to student design. In cahoots with Mr. J, I am also building a model wagon, and I am very excited to see which student (or teacher!) groups will end up victorious on our own Oregon Trail.


Source: http://www.guillaumeguy.com/images/slide0005_image124_000.jpg


Typically, I struggle with seeing an obvious connection between the STEM subjects and the concepts taught in a humanities classroom, and this is coming from someone who absolutely loves calculus-based physics. However, the model wagon project is an engaging way for Team Nova to integrate all core subjects within our humanities curriculum, and students are capitalizing on their math, science, and social studies skills without passive guesswork as to why each component is relevant to their learning. I look forward to observing students as they work through the challenges of our Oregon Trail wagon project in the coming days, and I intend to pay close attention to how students tackle the multi-subject tasks when I'm noting their learning progress. In the future, I hope to design lessons and projects for my humanities courses that employ the STEAM concepts students have mastered or are presently mastering in their other classes. Clearly, the model wagon project proves that curriculum integration can and should go beyond the humanities/STEM lines, and I am eager to test out my own integrated unit designs that will hopefully endure all of the challenges of a real classroom.

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