Celebration of Student Body Diversity: An Integrated Unit with Math and Science
By Laura Wetmore and Megan Ballachey
Essential Questions:
This unit attempts to answer the following questions as students learn to celebrate diversity on their campus.
Throughout the lesson, these are the key points to encourage students to learn about diversity and to educate others on campus about the student body they are proud to be a part of.
Overview of student activities:
Students learn about diversity through a cross curricular collaboration of science and math and potentially other subjects that might want to join in. Statistics is studied in the math classes while their science class focuses on DNA and heredity and the endocrine system. Students spend time with the theme by first watching videos on the art of advocacy in multimedia formats. In these examples, students see the power of diversity as well as a format for raising awareness on the issue. The next step is for our students to do some research on their immediate school wide community. Students give a self made survey to the students of their campus. The data gathered is computed into a statistic the students want to focus on in their math class. The attention then turns to creating their own advocacy art for their statistic. The students are allowed to perform a skit, create a poster, a video or any other approved medium that speaks to them. The art is then displayed on campus in order to encourage the student body to embrace their difference and understand that it is our differences that makes the community successful overall. Students then debrief on the experience and reflect on the feedback from the student body.
This unit attempts to answer the following questions as students learn to celebrate diversity on their campus.
- Why is Diversity important?
- Where does diversity come from?
- What are the statistics of our student body?
Throughout the lesson, these are the key points to encourage students to learn about diversity and to educate others on campus about the student body they are proud to be a part of.
- Diversity on a scientific level.
- Understanding statistics about the study body.
- Celebrate the differences that opens our minds and makes us stronger as a community of learners.
Overview of student activities:
Students learn about diversity through a cross curricular collaboration of science and math and potentially other subjects that might want to join in. Statistics is studied in the math classes while their science class focuses on DNA and heredity and the endocrine system. Students spend time with the theme by first watching videos on the art of advocacy in multimedia formats. In these examples, students see the power of diversity as well as a format for raising awareness on the issue. The next step is for our students to do some research on their immediate school wide community. Students give a self made survey to the students of their campus. The data gathered is computed into a statistic the students want to focus on in their math class. The attention then turns to creating their own advocacy art for their statistic. The students are allowed to perform a skit, create a poster, a video or any other approved medium that speaks to them. The art is then displayed on campus in order to encourage the student body to embrace their difference and understand that it is our differences that makes the community successful overall. Students then debrief on the experience and reflect on the feedback from the student body.