10
May

4th Grade Science, History, Math, and ELA with Isamu Noguchi

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“Academic disciplines are often seen as separate fields of study with little in common, when in reality they are interconnected through a multitude of complex nuances” -Tonya Scott and Todd Twyman.

      When we integrate our subjects, we are creating a real-world experience for our students. Have you ever had a student ask you, “When am I going to use this?”or “Why do I have to learn this?” If you integrate cross-curricular subjects with maker-ed projects, students will automatically get why each subject is important to know as they are applying it in a real-world application. With this mindset, the possibilities are endless, and of course overwhelming. The purpose of HES’s series, Cross-Curricular Suggestions, is to help give classroom teachers inspiration on how to start.

      Let’s start with all that a teacher needs to teach in a Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) focused 4th grade classroom in California. In science, students learn about energy, waves, molecules and organisms, the earth’s place, earth’s systems, interactions with humans, and design/engineering/science methodology. In math students learn about algebraic thinking, operations with base 10 numbers and fractions, measurements, data, and geometry. Reading standards require students the need to add to their understanding of key ideas and details, craft and structure, integration of knowledge, read a grade level 4-5 in text complexity in literature and informational texts, have phonic and word recognition skills, and fluency. Writing standards require students to add to their understanding of text types, text purposes, how to produce and distribute writing, research, to build on previous knowledge of a topic, and write routinely over long and short periods of time. Speaking and listening standards require students to know how to come to discussion prepared, follow the agreed upon discussion rules, answer and ask discussion questions, discuss their own understanding of the topic, paraphrase text, identify support of an idea from text, and present knowledge and ideas. Language standards require students need to add to their knowledge relating to conventions of standard english, knowledge of the language, and to acquire new vocabulary. Finally, history standards in California expect students to learn about the geography of California, history of California from pre-Columbian times to today, and the U.S. Constitution. Ready to cram that in 10 months, not to mention create classroom culture, manage 15-40 students with very different personalities and needs, as well as any other classes required by the school all at the same time?

      For this cross-curricular maker project overview we will use Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi as the main inspiration. He was born in 1904 in Los Angeles to an American mother and a Japanese father. When Noguchi was 2, he and his mother followed his father to live in Tokyo. As things did not work out between his mother and father, they moved around Japan several times. By the time he was 8, his mother had him be the supervisor for building a new house for his mother, new little sister, and him as you will learn about with the “East-West House” reading (see link at the end). His mother could see his creative potential and supported his love of art. Noguchi moves back to the U.S. to attend school. He becomes an artist, primarily known for his sculpture and travels extensively throughout his life. In 1942, Noguchi voluntarily interned himself at the Poston Internment Camp in Arizona for seven months as a political activist. He dies in 1988 as a prolific artist in New York City.

      In this cross-curricular maker project overview, students will create their own designs for a housing structure incorporating aspects of american and the culture of the immigrant family into the design, just as Noguchi did with his East West house. The example incorporates standards in 4th grade science, history, math, and ela. Keep in mind if you use this example in lesson planning that you can tailor it to your needs, taking out and adding in standards to create your own maker project unit. If this is your first time, don’t worry about incorporating all cross-curricular requirements, just do a little at a time so you don’t overextend yourself. You want this to be an effective curriculum for you and your students, not a monster that causes you to not want to come to school. In other words, this example is intended to be an inspiration and is not written in stone.

      For your timeline, I recommend to follow the 5 design phases. Empathise, define, ideate, prototype, and test. At the end, you will have a presentation for students to share their experiences throughout this process. It is also recommended to have regularly scheduled discussions between the phases, not only to accommodate certain standards requirements, but for check-ins to aid you to better assess the groups as well as having peer assessment practice. The empathy phase is to understand and share the feelings of another person or group, so students will be researching and doing interviews to better understand their immigrant family. The define phase will be for students to describe exactly the meaning of the problems their immigrant family faces regarding housing and home life. The ideate phase is when students form ideas and create multiple designs as a solution to the problems they defined in the last phase. The prototyping phase is when you make a model of one of your best/most helpful ideation in order to test your ideas in 3D, so students may make model/s of their ideations to express how they plan to solve their families problem within the given constraint. And finally the testing phase is when students see how effective their solution is. Your groups may have other groups observe their prototype to give feedback regarding the solutions, have another class come in to “test” the solution, or even have people from your community to come in and give feedback. Another blog is needed to go more in depth on the topic of design phases in the classroom, but for now the d.school’s introduction is a great place to start.

      Let’s start with science, as this is the main “ingredient” building this maker project that all other subjects align to. The NGSS standards we are using are the whole sub-category from the Engineering, Technology, and the Application of Science. Tell students that you have a design problem where you need to build a home for an immigrant family. They may choose the the culture, you can choose for them, or you may stay with Japanese immigrant culture if you want to keep consistency with Noguchi’s story. However, they do have a constraint they have to work around and still be successful. Maybe the family has a low budget and each team will have an amount they may spend and have to “pay” for their materials, the region may be short on materials and only have certain items they are allowed to build with, they may have a tight deadline that each phase has to be completed, or you can give a different constraint to each team and they can compare issues later during discussions and presentation (3-5-ETS1-1). Each team will need to come up with multiple possible solutions to solve their families problems during the ideation phase and will need to have controlled variables during the testing phase (3-5-ETS1-2 & 3-5-ETS1-3).

      History is the next subject that is a secondary main “ingredient” that makes up this cross-curricular maker project. The CCSS we are using in this overview example are from the sub-category of Agriculture and Industry of California (pg. 14) adopted in 1998, and also check out the History Social Science Framework adopted in 2016 for further explanation and integration ideas. The stories of the families given to the students for building them a new house will need to follow how immigration and migration to California between 1850 and 1900, of either the Japanese immigrants as Noguchi and/or other immigrant communities. Among these stories students need to research information about their families countries of origin, culture, and conflicts relating to moving to the U.S. and California in particular (4.4.3). Include discussions on the Japanese and how their lives were affected related to internment camps during World War II (4.4.5).

      There are many math standards this project may focus on, so keep in mind you may take out or add in to fit your needs and time-frame. The CCSS standards this project focuses on are in the Operations and Algebraic Thinking, and Measurements and Data sub-categories. Have your students design their floor plans during the ideation phase on a grid in order for them to practice their understanding that the area is equal to the length times width, A=LxW, while interpreting that the area is L times as many as W and W times as many as L. Verbally compare the observations with observations of other group’s floorplans. Do the same to get the perimeter of the homes (4.OA.A.1). Have students measure the material given to build, popsicle sticks for example, and do the math to find out how much building materials they will need to layout the perimeter of the floorplan for their building, be sure these notes get written down on their floor plans and should include addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to find out how much material they need. Follow the same example to learn the materials needed for the walls and roof (4.OA.A.2, 4.OA.A.3, 4.MD.A.2, & 4.MD.A.3). Students should have measurements in inches and in feet and record both side-by-side in order to compare when measuring the perimeters and areas of their homes (4.MD.A.1).

      Many reading standards are easily incorporated into projects like this, so the same goes as with the other subjects, take out and add-in standards to fit your needs and time constraints. The CCSS standards this project focuses on are in the Literature, Informational Text, and Foundational Skills subcategories. During the empathy phase there will be a lot of reading in order to better understand their families, and these should be a mix of literature and informational text to get well acquainted with immigrant life in America and California as well as life in internment camps during World War II. Within their groups, students should share what they learned from their reading with one another by summarizing the theme or main idea including the overall structure of events, and important details including a character, setting, event, procedure, idea, or concept for the group to understand the context using details and examples directly from the texts (RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RI.4.1, RL.4.2, RI.4.3, & RI.4.5). Students should read 2 or more of each type of books in literature and informational text and then compare and contrast what they have read as well as compare and contrast with their own experiences or other cultural experiences they know of (RL.4.9 & RI.4.9). With this practice, students will also be working on their phonics and word recognition and fluency requirements (RF.4.3.A, RF.4.4.A, RF.4.4.B, & RF.4.4C).

      Writing for research and documentation purposes are so important in design, so fulfilling the CCSS Writing requirements is a natural. The sub-categories we will focus on are in the Text Types and Purposes, Production and Distribution of Writing, and Research to Build and Present Knowledge. Students should have documentation introducing their topic in paragraphs or sections separating sub-topics, using correct formatting, and include images or other multimedia to further describe their topic. A bibliography should be included for them to prove their research and to easily recommend further reading (W.4.2.A, W.4.7, W.4.8, W.4.9.A, & W.4.9.B). The content should include facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, and other information and examples related to the topic (W.4.2.B). The group presentation should have a concluding statement or section describing how the house design they made is a good solution based on the previous information they used describing their research on the families culture and experiences (W.4.2.E). Your groups should either meet periodically to give presentations with where they are, frequency depends on how you structure your schedule, have a mock presentation before final presentations, or both to even better add to their speaking requirements. They should plan out their presentation by designing it on paper first, present it, and revise as is necessary. This practice will help them in making sure they are creating clear and coherent writing appropriate to the presentation style.

      One of the requirements I love from the CCSS is Speaking and Listening. If you are tempted to skim by this part, please don’t, it is not only an important part of design, but so important for them to get practice early with almost anything they do scholarly and professionally. The subcategories we focus in this are Comprehension and Collaboration and Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas. The class should come up with both rules for discussion and have it posted during times discussion should be happening as well as come up with roles for discussion time, such as do you want a specific person asking questions and answering, do you want a moderator, etc… (SL.4.1.B). Students are expected to discuss ideas and questions one-on-one, with their group, and teacher-led conversations (SL.4.1). This includes being prepared for discussions by reading or studying required information and be ready to talk about what they read by reviewing key ideas from the research, give their understanding of such, responding to questions with evidence, making questions, and adding comments that link to what others are saying (SL.4.1.A, SL.4.1.C, SL.4.1.D, & SL.4.3). As you observe your students speaking in these diverse group situations, assess that students are speaking in an organized manner, using relevant facts appropriately, being descriptive with details, speaking clearly, and speaking at an understandable pace. I recommend you clearly state with students that you will be helping them practice these skills, and be clear it is not a reprimand or that they have done something wrong when you correct them (SL.4.4). You don’t want them to be fearful of speaking, but empowered with a helpful guide making them even stronger. Also, be sure to emphasise the difference where formal English will be expected during a formal presentation and situations where it is acceptable to speak informally during small-groups, your guidance to practice both of these styles is important (SL.4.6).

      Please let me know what you think of this cross-curricular maker project unit inspiration by leaving a comment. Want to be a part of the 3rd grade maker curriculum beta testers? Then contact me and let me know, Californians are great but you can be from anywhere. And yes, homeschool Ts are welcome to join in. Also, if you are in the SF Bay area, come check my talk about cross-curricular integration at Maker Faire on May 20th at 12:30 or at the reMAKE Education Conference in Sonoma County August 1-3.

Recommended books (affiliate links):

Standards followed in this article include:

  • Science: 3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2, and 3-5-ETS1-3
  • History: 4.4.3 and 4.4.5
  • Math: CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.OA.A.1, 4.OA.A.2, 4.OA.A.3, 4.MD.A.1, 4.MD.A.2, and 4.MD.A.3
  • ELA
    • Reading: RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RI.4.1, RL.4.2, RI.4.3, RI.4.5, RL.4.9, RI.4.9, RF.4.3.A, RF.4.4.A, RF.4.4.B, RF.4.4C
    • Writing: W.4.2.A, W.4.2.B, W.4.2.E, W.4.7, W.4.8, W.4.9.A, W.4.9.B
    • Speaking and Listening: SL.4.1, SL.4.1.A, SL.4.1.B, SL.4.1.C, SL.4.1.D, & SL.4.3, SL.4.4, SL.4.6