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0 10-July-2020

Study Guide in ECED 113 Science in Early Childhood Education Module No. 7

STUDY GUIDE FOR MODULE NO. 7

INTEGRATING SCIENCE WITH OTHER SUBJECTS

MODULE OVERVIEW

It’s easy to feel as if there aren’t enough hours in the school day to properly address all
the curriculum and instructional expectations that we must teach our students. The challenging part is
addressing curriculum expectations in a meaningful way where students are engaged
and motivated throughout the lesson.

One of the most powerful strategies that we have ever learned as teachers is taking a cross-curricular
approach in planning lessons and units for the school year, as we are able to incorporate curriculum
expectations from various subject areas to create an engaging activity. By developing cross-curricular
activities that are both fun and motivating, teachers can easily integrate science into different subject areas—it
only requires a bit of planning and creativity!

We all know that science and math are easy to teach together, but did you know that science can be
creatively woven into other subject areas? Science can be integrated into English language arts, the arts,
health and physical education, and social studies to create engaging lessons and activities that your students
will just love. Here are some easy ways to integrate science across the curriculum.

MODULE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

At the end of this module, you should have:

1. integrated Science with other subjects.

LEARNING CONTENTS

Science with English / Language Arts

Science can be integrated into English language arts in order to touch upon curriculum expectations for
reading, writing, oral communication, and media literacy.

Science Poems

Teachers can begin by sharing science poems with their students. There are so many excellent resources
available. Some great examples are:

 The Science Verse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (2004)

 The Blood-Hungry Spleen and Other Poems About Our Parts by Allan Wolf (2003), or
 The Seasons edited by John N. Serio.

Your students can then have their own Poet’s Corner by writing various poems (e.g. haiku, tanka, free
verse, sonnet, acrostic) to reflect science concepts and then sharing them with the class.

Science Video Writing Activities

An excellent short movie to share with your class is The Story of Bottled Water. This lesson is a great
way to incorporate media literacy into your science lessons (and vice versa) and promote a healthy discussion
with your students regarding the environmental implications of their daily actions.

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Study Guide in ECED 113 Science in Early Childhood Education Module No. 7

Organizing Science Info

Give your students a particular topic and have them use Venn Diagrams, T-Charts, or other graphic
organizers to compare and contrast the main ideas. This activity can then be extended if students prepare a
written response, deliver a speech, or participate in a classroom debate.

Science & the Arts

By incorporating science and the arts together, students will be immersed in activities that allow them to
experience and then express the natural world around them.

Teach the Elements with Mixed Media

Try to provide students with media related to the science unit they are studying. For example, students
learning about the water cycle can:

 Produce water color paintings

 Use clay to discuss the earth’s crust and the effect temperature and pressure have on materials
 Sit outside and use oil pastels to depict the changes in the fall foliage

Upcycle Art Projects

Have students bring in a variety of items from home that would have either been recycled or tossed in the
trash and use these items in their artwork. Students can upcycle these items into interesting works of art.
Examples include:

 Painting jars
 Using scraps of fabric to make braided bracelets
 Creating interesting 3-D/mixed media paintings.

The possibilities are endless and students will be able to express their creativity while learning about
recycling, reusing, upcycling, and sustainability.

Demonstrate Science Concepts through Movement

Have students get up and out of their seats to move around. Not only will students be incorporating
science concepts throughout their drama activities, but being able to get up to stretch and move around will
also help students release a bit of energy and help them refocus on the task at hand.

Students can act out changes of state by starting off as a frozen piece of ice, melting into a pool of water, and
then evaporating into vapor. The same concept can be used to learn about the water cycle, particles, and the
four layers of the Earth.

Science, Health and Physical Education

Students can take part in fun and lively physical education lessons that incorporate science concepts in a
unique way.

Biology and Nature Walks

When learning about habitats, environmental awareness, ecosystems, or the diversity of life, have
students go out on a hike in your area or to a nearby conservation area. Be on the lookout for various
environmental programs offered by your state that would provide students with a science lesson while
participating in physical activities; for example, students can plant trees, visit local parks to remove litter, or
measure and inventory trees.

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Study Guide in ECED 113 Science in Early Childhood Education Module No. 7

Physical Education Physics

What better way to learn about physics than to get students physically moving? In this invigorating activity,
students can measure the amount of time it takes them to walk, jog, or sprint a particular distance and then
calculate their speed and average speed. Students can alter the variables to determine what affects the speed
of their performance.

Science Fitness Circuits

Set up various cardio, strength training, and stretching circuits during your P.E. classes where students
learn about the human body while visiting each station. During the fitness circuit, students could learn about
the aorta while doing jumping jacks, triceps while completing push-ups, and Achilles tendons as they perform
front leg raises.

Teaching Science with Social Studies

History and science fit together seamlessly. Scientific innovation has been a driving force in societal
change. To put it in perspective for students, have them consider what life would be like without the internet,
phones, or electricity. What it would be like to look up at the stars and not know what they are?

If you’re teaching a historical time period, you can focus on scientific discoveries and technological
advances during that time. Have students create a presentation that highlights one or more scientific
innovations and how they affected society (both then and now).

Creating Activities across All Subjects

The last cross-curricular suggestion can actually incorporate several subjects into one engaging lesson
where students work together to develop commercials or public service announcements.

This fun and motivating activity will allow teachers to cover expectations in reading, writing, oral
communication, the arts (both visual arts and drama), media literacy, science, and, depending on the topic,
even health and physical education.

Pollution PSAs

For example, students can create a public service announcement in small groups on the topic of pollution.
As a cross-curricular activity, students would be gathering information, writing a script, acting out their roles,
designing props and backgrounds, understanding the role of media, and delivering a powerful science and
health message. Students can then present their public service announcements to other classes within the
school to spread their message.

LEARNING ACTIVITY 1

Demonstration lessons that require integration of Science with other subjects of the

SUMMARY

As known that for over all development of the students, various subjects are being included in the
curriculum. These subjects are not selected on ad-hoc basis, but this decision is taken after proper
consideration and analyzation. Generally those subjects are included in the curriculum which is found to be
complementary to each other, as the main objective of all of them is to achieve set objective of education that
is to bring about over all development of the students.

Science is quite a complex and vast kind of subject, because of which the task of correlating it with other
subjects of curriculum seems to be quite an easy task. Deliberate effort should be done by the science
teacher to bring about co-relation in between the science and other subjects of the curriculum, which are
being imparted to the students.

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Study Guide in ECED 113 Science in Early Childhood Education Module No. 7

Through this, students will find the opportunity to relate the knowledge which they have already gained,
with the knowledge which they are gaining. This kind of relation activity leads to development of interest
among the students.

While imparting knowledge of one subject, teacher gets much help in communicating his ideas if he
makes use of examples or reference of concepts covered by other subjects. Although it is not very easy to co-
relate various subjects with the complex subject like science, but it is not impossible.

REFERENCES

Abd-El-Khalick, F. and Lederman, N.G. (2000). Improving science teachers’ conceptions of nature of science:
a critical review of the literature. International Journal of Science Education, 22, 7, 665-702.
Kysilka, M. L. (1998). Understanding integrated curriculum. Curriculum Journal, 2, 197-209.
Murphy, C., Murphy, C. and Kilfeather, P. (2011). Children making sense of science. Research in Science
Education, 4, 2, 283 – 298.

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