Phenomena-Based Instruction Isn't Only for Science

I have heard of an “integrated” elementary unit on apples. The class does science by cutting open the apple and looking at the seeds, learns about Johnny Appleseed for social studies, writes about their favorite type of apple for English Language Arts (ELA), and does some apple-based word problems for math. Building on current instructional approaches with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), phenomenon-based integrated learning looks a bit different. 

Figure 1: New Jersey Summer Bat Count Longitudinal Data, n = 22 sites (Conserve Wildlife NJ, 2016).

In another third-grade classroom, student groups are given copies of this bat data (Figure 1). The teacher asks, “What do you notice?” and “What do you wonder?” They’re immediately engaged in number sense and mathematical thinking. In science, small groups become experts on different challenges bat populations are facing and share those with the class, comparing the impact of each. In social studies, they learn to make sense of maps as they see where the white nose fungus has spread across the country and within their state. For social studies and ELA they write a letter to a local government official talking about why bats are important and why white nose syndrome is a problem (which also builds on science learning about ecosystems). Overall in this unit, students are asked to collaboratively make sense of this phenomenon of bat population change from science, mathematics, social studies, and ELA lenses. 

This sense-making approach is central to the NGSS and inquiry-based instruction. It has been discussed for years, but professional learning rarely supports teachers in seeing how it connects across all subject areas. It’s no wonder that elementary educators are overwhelmed, when they feel their modes of instruction have to be completely different in every subject. Inquiry-based approaches could meaningfully form the core of every subject, connecting schoolwork and better mirroring real-life endeavors. Inquiry allows for teachers to connect to students’ lives and interests, making learning more engaging and more equitable. 

To further illustrate how a phenomenon-based inquiry approach works across subject areas, it’s useful to elaborate on how it connects to the standards and unique goals in each core subject. 

The national C3 Framework emphasizes that “inquiry is at the heart of social studies.” My daughter, however, memorized every president, every country, and every country capital in her middle school social studies classes. That’s information she could find in under five seconds on her phone. She didn’t learn skills to find information. She rarely, if ever, had opportunities to make sense of historic and societal events with a group of her peers. Instead, student learning about a topic such as supply and demand should be more than memorizing definitions; it should include speculating why a student’s favorite new game is sold out at a store (the phenomenon) and welcoming a store owner to the classroom to discuss stocking and pricing decisions. Students in fifth grade should not simply read a chapter about slavery within a heavy book and answer some comprehension questions. They could come to understand some horrors of slavery through reading and comparing aseries of slave narratives from the past and present–delving into a phenomenon of oppression throughout history and continuing today. They don’t recreate a sugar and slave trade triangle; they problematize events, dig into them from multiple perspectives, and connect them to their world now. 

Math might be the most difficult core subject for teachers to conceptualize as making sense of a phenomenon. Instructionally, it is well entrenched as a worksheet or a listing of many similar practice problems. Students largely replicate a skill their teacher shows them, having to be shown how to do a problem if it varies in any significant way from the examples. Math can, however, be practical and beautiful as students learn how to make sense of the world mathematically. In particular, the Standards for Mathematical Practice of the Common Core encourage creating opportunities for students to think about and solve novel problems mathematically, not simply repeat a standard algorithm. Generally, mathematics instruction and textbooks start with a skill and practice problems that vary a little bit from what’s been learned before. Students then do a long series of practice problems and probably a couple word problems, which really only ask students to plug new numbers into previously practiced ways of doing. Conceptual understanding may or may not be emphasized. The math section doesn’t start with an interesting problem, based on a phenomenon that relates to the students. Instead of having students replicate an area model for 5x4, we might start by saying, “We need a new rug that will fit all 20 students in this area of the classroom.” Or, instead of adding decimals, we might say, “I run a store and need to figure out if my assistant did a review of sales correctly.” The goal is not to learn isolated mathematics skills, but rather how to approach problems. An example of this type of work is the “3 Act Tasks” from Dan Meyer, where students are asked to use mathematics to make sense of a particular situation, such as how long it will take an octagonal tank to fill up. 

In a practical sense, the phenomena used for ELA can be anything that is going to meaningfully engage students and allow for standards connections, such as a recent polar vortex weather event, a school shooting, or the opioid epidemic. Students read, research, interview, write, and argue about the phenomenon as they consider various viewpoints and formulate their own. They dig into related fiction and nonfiction texts, and/or develop and share their own related stories. The phenomenon itself could even be the writing, the media, the “text” (slides 24-30 here). Why did the person write or create this piece? How would you create a text to convey the same tone and message? Why did the character within the text act a certain way? Students collaboratively ask questions of this phenomenon (this text), seek more information about it, and connect it to their lives in order to make sense of it.

In science, a group of students likewise begins by engaging with a meaningful phenomenon—by meaningful, I’d say it prompts students’ curiosity and links to standards-based goals. Students use their background knowledge, figure out what they can about what they’re observing, and ask questions. They collaboratively create, share, and reflect on an initial model that shows their thinking about the phenomenon. This process is not “one and done.” They keep coming back to the phenomenon and their models as they do experiments and research, have peer discussions, and investigate related phenomena. They build up evidence and understanding, leading to an explanation that ties their evidence and scientific learning together.

The NGSS also emphasize an engineering approach within science. A science, tech ed, or STEM class should similarly move beyond activity-doing (e.g., building the tallest spaghetti tower) and have students using background knowledge to solve meaningful problems. Considering our earlier bat example, students might design bat houses to address habitat loss, drawing them out with proper measurements so they’re the right size for bats and bat groups in their region.

Summary 

If we value teaching that connects to authentic thinking and doing, we must provide students opportunities across subjects to make sense of their world. The challenges we face cannot be solved from one disciplinary lens; students must learn how to bring varying epistemologies and diverse perspectives together to effect change.

The beginning elementary apple unit example could be redesigned. Students might start in science by observing an apple tree with a branch of a different type of apples on it. They learn about, and observe, the structure and function of apples and apple trees, delving into comparative structure and function of plant life. They connect that to learning about heredity and reproduction. In social studies, their phenomenon might be simplified data on the amounts of different types of apples that are bought along with their cost, where students use that to build a basic discussion of supply and demand. They further look at apple consumption per region on a map, considering about their own region, geography connections to apple growing, and their cultural connections to apples. In mathematics, students would investigate apple production numbers, per area and per tree per year. They’d connect that to learning about geometric area and multiplication, continuing their work by investigating production numbers within a faltering orchard and determining whether it makes sense to plant new trees considering long term yield vs. short term loss. In ELA, their first text—their phenomenon—is an apple cookbook. Students build from there to write out clear directions for how to make and cook a certain type of dish, using apples or another type of vegetable or fruit used at home. They collaboratively revise their directions and create and publish a class recipe book, comparing that to recipe books of other classes across the country.

Of course, teachers need instructional materials that support this type of learning, and they need time for collaborative professional learning to put it into practice and reflect on how it goes. As teachers note, this type of instruction takes more time. It’s worth it for student learning.