Expanding and Deepening Social Studies Learning
Fun and games and creativity can be serious business—and complex topics such as geography and human migration can be learned in fun and creative ways! That’s what our grade 7 students are discovering in their specially designed Integrated Social Studies class as well as through the cross-disciplinary connections that individual subject teachers are identifying and pursuing.
“National standards drive the curriculum,” explains Middle School Assistant Principal Samantha Dry. “But within that framework, we have the flexibility to take deep dives into certain aspects or develop relevant project-based units.”
For instance, the seventh graders’ study of world geography in Social Studies has tied in with both planned and serendipitous cross-disciplinary opportunities to deepen students’ understanding about continents, countries, and the people who inhabit them. Here are two examples:
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In their Integrated Social Studies unit, the students have been tasked with designing educational board games to teach (and test) players on geography. This requires not only that they know their geography “facts” but also that they apply design, logic, and even math skills as they come up with game formats, rules, and scoring systems. In September, they visited a local family-owned company, Across the Board Game, and learned from owner Kim McDaniels that a successful board game should offer the right balance of challenge and variety, without being overly complex, and should evidence quality materials and workmanship.
- On a more spontaneously organized field visit, Social Studies and Language Arts teachers took the opportunity to tie those two subjects together to help students understand the intersection between nations and nationality—an interesting and purposeful parallel to their study of geography. The students had just been reading A Long Walk to Water, based on a true story about a young Sudanese boy who eventually found refuge in the United States. The class was invited to the International Institute of St. Louis, where they attended a naturalization, or swearing-in, ceremony for new U.S. citizens—an experience that also sets the stage for a future unit on immigration. (After the event, the students enjoyed handing out U.S. flag-wrapped candies to the new Americans!)
The integrated studies approach lends itself well to the incorporation of artistic as well as presentation skills. In designing their game boards, for example, the students are using a variety of materials and techniques, paying attention to color and spacing and the appearance of the finished product. (In fact, Middle School faculty have found that merging art into project work, rather than delivering it as a stand-alone class, allows students to develop and demonstrate their creativity without feeling a false sense of pressure about their artistic abilities.) At the end of this unit, the students will be presenting their games and design rationales before a panel of judges that will include business owner McDaniels.
“In Integrated Studies classes, we specifically teach critical thinking and collaboration, as well as presentation skills—all of which will benefit students throughout school and college,” Dry points out. The impact of such training is already being evidenced in the results from the College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA+), which is built around performance tasks. The statistics show that, over the last three years, the rate of improvement in scores among Principia middle schoolers has outpaced the national average.