Cross-Curricular inspiration from da Vinci

This was sent to me via a friend on Pinterest and it resonated strongly with me.

I am a firm believer in cross-curricular units and arts integration. In fact, one of the first and most successful cross-curricular units I've done was a Renaissance art unit with grade 8. When I took the grade 8s through the Renaissance as a Social Studies and Art teacher we looked at how Art and Science crossed over and how artists and scientists relied on each other.

Artists studied anatomy to be able to understand the body and draw more accurately. Anatomists relied on artists to draw what they observed. Leonardo da Vinci - did everything. I found that students really found these connections interesting. At middle school, the subjects seem to get more and more separated so it's valuable to remind them that in the real world (ancient and modern) things are indded connected.

Cross-curricular units reinforce learning, allow students to display their understanding in ways that suits them (perfect differentiation), develops litteracy, problem solving and communication skills among others and reminds teachers that we don't work in isolation.

If you want to see more cross-curricular units I have done, please visit my cross-curricular page under "projects" on my site.