Connections Across the Disciplines: Science-y Lesson Plan

Connections across disciplines in education have often intrigued me, especially when considering German.  We often hear about the value of collaborating with other professionals; however, we less often see evidence of results.  From my own high school experience, a disconnect was rather prevalent across the board.  Teachers did not seem to truly speak with one another in order to share ideas; the discrepancies between the most and least effective teachers were massive, even between subjects that seemed as if they could easily share resources and lesson ideas, such as history, French and English. Based off our in-class discussions, even science and math can offer insight into humanities and vice-versa, if the effort is effectively made.  Toss some technology into the mix, and it's amazing what types of somewhat newer and innovate lessons can arise.

A great example is demonstrated by Anthony, Katie and Lulu's lesson plan: https://docs.google.com/a/umich.edu/document/d/15qIX0LkUzhJaDpOfdiQVfv2_Qo2OSlOvrzyWdzvuX5k/edit.  If I were still in high school/middle school, I believe I would have enjoyed this lesson.  (And, just because photosynthesis still makes me think of sunflowers...)

Although mainly focused on biology with an additional twist of chem/math, this group not only integrated all components well, but enticed me to consider how some of their methods/use of technology could be incorporated into the German classroom.  Hooking the students with a short video could be a refreshing change every once in awhile, and the use of the PollRunner App could potentially be used to evaluate the pre-existing knowledge of students.  For example, before launching into a lesson on the past participle, it may be useful to first check their understanding of verb conjugations and the use of haben (to have) versus sein (to be) as helping verbs.

In addition, I enjoyed how towards the end of class, a return to the video was planned, followed by a discussion about what the students observed and what did/did not align with what they had just learned.  I find it useful to recap new materials in any class.  As a whole, the lesson plan was extremely solid and well explained; however, in order for the students to have a firm grasp of photosynthesis and all of its nuances, especially if they are learning it for the first time, the lesson would probably need to be revisited for at least a portion of the next class period.  Another point to consider: what if not all of the students have their own iPads?  Would the school provide them?  Would they need to go use a different computer?  What if several students do not have SmartPhones?  What are the intended ages of the students, and how technology literate are they?  As always, some issues do arise with BYOD.
   
That being said, the game seemed fun and educational.  If it could be worked into a lesson on photosynthesis, even if students only had the opportunity to later do it on their own time or all go to the computer lab at school, it would most likely be beneficial, especially for those not completely sold on being interested in math.  In addition, it reminded me of several enjoyable online German grammar games I wish to make accessible to my students, such as the following: http://grammatiktraining.de/spiele/krokoadj.html
                http://grammatiktraining.de/spielemenue.html