Cross-Curricular Approaches
By: Kejin Li, Christine Chung, Brian Caldwell, Jazz McClure, Malini Paul
The broad scope of this PBL theme makes it easy to implement across all age groups in ways that are both meaningful to the students and relevant to their subject content.
Lower Elementary
Math
Students practice reading simple pie and bar graphs that depict cultural statistics across the world.
Students learn how to conduct a simple survey to understand how people can have differences in preference and opinion. Students ask meaningful questions about what they want to know about their peers. Students practice graphing the answers on simple pie and bar graphs.
Social Studies
Make a poster about “Compare and contrast schools around the world”: school building, school clothing, school subjects, type of lessons, community language, school transportation, school schedules, unique programs if there are any.
Students compare and contrast the family unit across the world. How are families different in different countries? How are they similar? What are the most important aspects of family for all human beings?
Students learn about cuisine across the world. They can explore videos of school lunches in different countries. Students try cooking a simple meal from another country.
Students learn about cultural clothing. Students create a paper craft depicting a traditional outfit from another country. Students take part in a fashion show displaying traditional clothing from different countries.
Art
Students learn about folk art from other countries. Students create their own art projects inspired by folk art around the world.
Make an All-About-Me quilt (using 9 paper squares) with drawings of my favorite things and present it in a class art museum.
Create a family tree. Use a video-recording tool to tell about your family interview.
Create a self-portrait using unconventional materials (popsicle sticks, buttons, toothpicks, newspaper etc.)
ELA
Students read cross-cultural literature. Students practice making text-to-self connections about the stories to find similarities and differences between their lives and the lives of those in the stories.
Science
Students grow plants using control variables. Some plants are given light, water, and healthy soil. Others have various variables removed. Record results and discuss why a healthy environment is important for all living things to grow as best as they can.
Students complete a “science of me” project (labeling parts of the body or make very simple skeleton as a class). Students give presentations on hair color, eye color, number of teeth lost etc.
Make a My Body book bag (https://www.icanteachmychild.com/plastic-baggie-my-body-book/)
IT
Students learn that every person has to protect themselves on the internet. Students practice keeping a safe password and logging into programs like Seesaw and Kids A-Z.
Students use Seesaw to record their thoughts and responses to classroom projects about the project theme.
Music/Drama
Students will have the opportunity to learn and perform a collaborative dance routine from different countries around the world to help understand the importance of music in expressing cultural identity.
Upper Elementary
Math
Time affects how we measure our lives. How to plan wisely to be punctual? Students will learn to use multiplication and division skilfully to count time, speed, and distance, and to apply them to their lives.
Science
Scientific advances allow us to better observe and record the natural world around us. Students will explore how the scientific tools for exploration and observation develop, then come up with ideas for their own inventions to solve certain flaws of tools that existed.
Social Studies
Students create an informational brochure about one country of their choice and include research on cultural aspects like food, clothing, music, art and traditions.
Students create an online travel blog about one country of their choice.
Students reflect make 5-step connection bridges that depict aspects of their identity and the environment around them. Students can eliminate the middle three steps and exchange it with another student to see of they can connect the first and last portions of the bridge as well.
Music
How do the musical signatures, tempo, expressions, and dynamics affect our emotions? Students will identify and create their own song by utilizing half, quarter, and eighth notes. They will also incorporate the use of time signatures (2/4, 3/4,4/4), tempo, expressions, and dynamics in the composition that they create to explain the emotions they want to express. What are different music/ dance styles from around the world, and how does music express our individuality or cultural identity?
Art
How does traditional folk art shape who we become? Students will learn about traditional folk art practices and artworks from different cultures. They will learn to use oil pastel and paint to create their artworks.
PE
A look at different sports from around the world. What impact does sport have in expressing our cultural identity. What skills and responsibilities can can different sports teach us?
Drama
People from different culture interact with each other in different ways. Students will learn and explore this topic by making a play on their own. Each of them will explore and play a role coming from a certain culture and use dialogues and body language to show an understanding of their differences.
IT
Digital environments also shape the person we become. Students will use a software called “Pivot Animator” to create stop motion animations with colorful backgrounds that their “stick person” will move around in and movements for “stick person” to show how they will be affected in digital environments.
ELA
When moving from one place to the other, how will individuals’ lives be affected? Students will learn the lives of immigrants through short films, in which they will also learn to identify the plot, setting, and events. Then they will use these elements to create a narrative about immigrants’ lives.
Students read literature depicting an immigrant family living in their own country. Students practice making text-to-self connections to find similarities and differences between their lives and the lives of those in the stories.
Secondary
Math
The environment shape us through providing us with multiple tasks. How to plan to be more efficient in our lives? Students will learn to make overall plans in their daily routines. They will list out everything they need to do and the time required for each activity in a day, to see they can plan which activities at the same time as other activities.
Have you seen any raffles in advertisements? Do you know the principles behind these raffles that make us fall into them? Students will learn probability and combinatorial structures arising in this algebraic context, to build a more detailed cognition of this world, thus avoiding falling into the tricks raffles create.
Geography
The environment we live in affects our hobbies. Students will describe the geographic location of an area they choose with hemispheric, land, latitude, and longitude locations, then analyze how these factors impact the sports that people enjoy.
How do all kinds of natural resources impact the development of agriculture and industry, thus affecting who we become? Each of the students will select one agricultural or industrial area as an example to look deeply, then all students will design an exhibition to show their understanding.
Social studies
Food we now eat daily may come from other places a long time ago. How was food introduced to a certain country or culture and impact the people living there? Students will search deeply into how one kind of food was introduced and its social impact on people with project journals to record their process.
How does the culture impact the ways people believe in? Students in groups dive deep into a religion from six different dimensions: ritual, doctrine, emotion, knowledge, ethics, and community, to see their connection with culture. They will write an essay regarding this topic.
History
Choices shape our past, present, and future. How our family history has led us to today? How do historical events affect our life choices? Students will make a family history timeline by interviewing family members and looking for evidence (old photos, videos, letters, etc.), applying what they learned of historical events.
ELA
Students will be able to read and understand the difficulties and differences in their life after immigration. What are the pros and cons of living where they are compared to where they are from? What are the mishaps you had adjusting to the new culture? Did these experiences result in personality change? Would you recommend immigration to your friends back home? Perform research and write a narrative based on their findings.
Art
Students will be able to show what they learned about immigration and adapting to a new culture. Through the choice of a medium, they can set a tone of their story. It can be in the form of a drawing, animation, video, storybook, photography, or a play (drama).
IT
Students will be able to learn many different ways to use the technology to enhance their representation. Various technologies and tools will help students think about unique and innovative ways to voice their opinions.
Music
Students will be able to learn what a soundtrack is and its function. They will create or choose an existing song to parody to make their soundtrack and add to their presentation.
Science
How does climate affect people's lives? Read about the five main climate types on Earth and which countries fall under each climate. Discuss how each climate affects their clothes, life patterns, the food they eat, and what each country is known for.