Interdisciplinary project database

Similarly to science and math, our understanding of art is highly influenced (in traditional curricula) by Western, male artists (e.g. Picasso, Michelangelo).

Highlight the contributions of female scientists and non-Western thinkers in both historical and modern settings.

Read about the various ways that artists are connecting with the food sustainability movement to promote just causes. Brainstorm how your community could convey the need for sustainable practices through an art project.

Consider what other factors, especially culturally, which impact people’s lives. For example, this article demonstrates that countries run by women had healthier responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. What other factors influence the city and maintenance of cities, cultures, and society?

Scientist Finds Secret to Thriving: Using this or other studies/survey data as a starting point, develop an understanding of how scientists could study something like well-being, happiness, or thriving. How can the scientific method evaluate something so subjective? Create your own methodology or survey and perform a similar study with a group in your school or community. What have you found? What are the limitations of your research?

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Identify a faith that is very different from your own. Research the inner workings of their ideas and why it has developed to be so different. Find the positive ways that they’re impacting their/your community, highlighting how faith can be used as a tool for social change.

What is Confirmation Bias? How does it influence the way we perceive and accommodate new information that contradicts our pre-existing beliefs? What are examples of Confirmation Bias in modern life and the history of science?

Consider the "trolley problem" in the context of health, exercise, and well-being. Observe a series of various diet options, exercise routines, and lifestyle changes. Have students consider the pros and cons of each of these choices, weighing these decisions and deciding on what outcomes work best for their lifestyle.

Create a cost-benefit analysis of living in your current country vs. living in a completely different environment. What would your life be like? What lifestyle changes would you need to make? Would this be something you’d want to explore?

Analyze how mass media influences peoples’ biases and opinions on controversial issues, and help students cultivate ways to encourage critical thinking about media sources.

Learn about the story of the teacher, Jane Elliot, who conducted a controversial elementary school experiment where she favored students with certain hair colors over others (and documented how the students responded).

Analyze how various faiths around the world have been heavily tied to art, noticing how many great works have been as a result of faith-based initiatives. Compare the world religion’s different works and how they’re stylistically different.

Play the online free web "game", Spent, to understand how people become homeless. It simulates the decisions that people make (and the catastrophes that happen) that cause homelessness.

Find examples of individuals and groups throughout history or the present, from your country or elsewhere, who exhibited tenacity and grit. Which criteria of grit do they exhibit? How did they overcome barriers to success? How did they persevere through adversity to accomplish a goal?

This article discusses the ways soft-skills are fostered in mathematics courses, Finding Soft Skills in Mathematics Isn’t As Hard As You Might Think.

Street art is highly connected to other “scenes”, such as skateboarding. Consider what these spaces are, why they exist, and how they operate in tandem with one another.

Consider your community and the areas with a lower cost of living. Why is it that those areas have lower property values? What could bring more awareness and sustainability to these areas? Prepare a report.

Analyze how graffiti artists move their craft from sketches to spray painting, highlighting how professional graffiti artists hone their craft. Then, demonstrate and create projects together using these techniques.

Read about how people fall into homelessness and the struggles that people face, including financial barriers to gaining housing.

Analyze global poverty as a wicked problem. How do we solve a problem that is so historically, economically, and culturally the norm in our world? What steps can individuals take in order to make a difference? Look at how various non-profits are attempting to solve this problem, offering students the chance to praise and critique different actions.

Creativity isn’t only reserved for the humanities! Open-ended questions make students think outside of the box about problems. Develop yourself, and/or have students develop, open-ended questions that require math to solve. Instead of providing a solution, encourage students to use their imaginations in various solutions to each problem.

Check out excerpts of The Mathematical Essence of Aging from Theoretically Speaking. Think about how much mathematics is intertwined with the way we live every single day. Why does this knowledge matter?

Examine the great debate between the Ptolemaic system and the Copernican system. Why did people believe in both of these ideas? What conflicts emerged as a result of Copernicus’ theories? How did our modern view of the Earth revolving around the Sun emerge as mainstream knowledge?

Examine one of the philosophies showcased in this lesson. Create a self-portrait that incorporates the stories, fables, meanings, and concepts of this given philosophy, interpreting these ideas into art. Use this artwork to inform and inspire change through understanding and action.

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Oftentimes, artists are their worst critic, and keeping hope as an artist is especially difficult. Check out this article on overcoming the myth of the “starving artist”, which argues that modern day artists thrive and earn livable wages in stable careers.

There’s a lot of amazing people doing work to make change. However, they’re often not aware of each other and therefore not having as much of an impact as they could. Act as a community liaison, researching all of the community action groups and individuals doing work in a certain sector of your community, arranging meetings and helping these groups coordinate with each other.

Taking time to decompress is a vital part of accomplishing goals. Although it may seem counterintuitive, knowing how to relax is just as important as working toward a goal. Work with peers to start a program focused on mindfulness, socializing, and meeting up together for fun activities.

Misleading Graphs is a great resource to help students understand how to lie and mislead with statistics and graphic information. Have students improve upon the examples on the site. Give students a data set and have them create their own “misleading graph”!

Consider the concept of scale. How much larger is a building in your community to a person? The land mass of your city to your country? Earth to Jupiter? Explore the mathematical possibilities of scale (and with it, distance!)

Consider how interconnected (and not connected) different types of artwork are. For example, are anime artists intertwined in the same “bubble” as fine artists? What are the preconceived notions about different types of art? What would happen if these ideas were blended together?

Look at the impact that one person can have on their local community. Is there a famous organizer or leader in your school’s town? Demonstrate how they started and the lasting impact they made on your area.

Develop a plan to tackle a personal or community challenge. What steps will you need to take in order to get there? What actions can you take within a certain number of weeks to make a difference? Log your progress and take on the challenge!

Creativity in the arts is a necessity, but creativity is often perceived as less useful outside of the arts or as a skill one either does or doesn’t have. Increasingly, however, creativity is viewed as a top industry skill, so how can we teach and cultivate creativity in students?