Integration of a science curriculum with mathematics, literacy, and social studies is important, if only because all these topics are interrelated. Integration of language arts and mathematics should be natural, as reading, writing, and calculations are an integral part of the subject – if not essential! I would have my students do essays, poetry, problem-solving mathematics, and creative writing such as making plays or short stories to expand and enhance what they are studying in the science curriculum. Also, they can read books associated with what they’re learning that are perhaps more interesting than their textbooks, but accomplish the same purpose(s)! In this way they can have fun in the learning process, use their individual creativity, and feel that the content is personally relevant to them, which is very important because it is them who will be using it all one day. As far as social studies is concerned, history and geography are a part of it, and are part of science too. History is taught in order for students to know about what humans have done over time, geography is taught in order for students to know about the physical earth that they inhabit, civics and government is taught in order to help students be citizens in the democracy in which they participate, and economics is taught to help students be consumers in the economy in which they work. As far as teaching history (the study of humans through time), the key skills needed to be developed by students are chronological thinking, historical comprehension, analysis, interpretation, and research. For geography, students are taught according to the thematic areas of location, place, human interactions with their environments, movement, and regions. Map reading is very important as a skill, and includes directional orientation, locating places on a map and globe, expressing relative location, using scale, computing distances, using scale to estimate time of travel, and interpreting map symbols and visualizing what they mean. As a science teacher, I believe it is important to teach all of these skills and lessons with the goal of students’ development both personally and as citizens. I believe it’s essential to study and learn from the past, as well as be knowledgeable about the current systems in which we live. As a science teacher I would emphasize to my students the practical aspects of all that they learn - how it can and should directly apply to their lives in a beneficial way.
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