Do the math

TL;DR: The article discusses the benefits and drawbacks of specialization in education, highlighting the need for a more holistic approach to learning.

Abstract: Byline: Steve Metz The typical school day is a triumph of specialization. Just follow one of your students through a day. First period: algebra; second period: social studies; third period: biology; fourth period: Spanish; fifth period: physical education (P.E.); and on and on through the day, until the final bell rings. To be sure, specialization can be important. Science itself could make little progress without the highly focused work of researchers investigating very specific questions. The danger of applying this model to education is that content will be presented in isolation, with little connection to a bigger picture. How often, for example, do we ask our students about what they learned in another subject or class period aside from our own? Focusing on science content, I often don't even know what class my students had in the period before science, or where they are heading off to after the bell rings. I have little insight into what they learn in other subject areas, or what interesting content from other disciplines might serve as a hook to make their science experience more engaging. Call for Papers The Science Teacher is looking for papers on the following topics. For submission guidelines, click here. New Horizons in Biology In a time of rapid change in all the sciences, no science is changing more dramatically-and with more important implications for the future-than biology. Share your classroom ideas and activities for teaching about the "New Biology." Submission Deadline: May 1, 2007. Global Science Immigration, international travel, and improvements in the global tele- communications infrastructure combine to make the world a smaller place-the "flat world" of Thomas Friedman. Our class- rooms become more and more multi- cultural, and headline issues such as global warming, rainforest depletion, global health, and protecting the Earth's oceans transcend national boundaries. While it remains crucial to "act locally," it is more important than ever to "think globally." This issue of TST will focus on ways to incorporate global issues in our science teaching. Submission Deadline: June 1, 2007. One can imagine a different sort of school, a more holistic, coherent educational framework. In such a school, history teachers would collaborate with science instructors to show how important scientific discoveries-metallurgy, antibiotics, nuclear fission, DNA-have at key points changed the course of human history. …