Multidisciplinary Courses

Building upon the success of our

past to chart a course for the
future
www.mi-life.org

Did You Know . . .

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If you’re one in a million in

China . . .
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There are 1,300 people just

like you.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html
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In India, there are 1,100

people just like you.

http://www.medindia.net/patients/calculators/pop_clock.asp
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The 25% of the population in

China with the highest IQ’s . . .
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Is greater than the total

population of North America.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html
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In India, it’s the top 28%.

http://www.medindia.net/patients/calculators/pop_clock.asp
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Translation:
They have more honors kids
than we have kids.

http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/pdf/53_PDF.pdf#search=
%22number%20of%20children%20in%20United%20States%22
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Did you know . . .

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China will soon become the

number one English speaking
country in the world.
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The U.S. Department of Labor

estimates that today’s learner
will have 10-14 jobs . . .
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By the age of 38.

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The top 10 in-demand jobs in

2010 didn’t exist in 2004.
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Question for educators:

How do we prepare our students
for 14 different jobs and several
different careers?
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We are currently preparing

students for jobs that don’t
yet exist . . .
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using technologies that

haven’t been invented . . .
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in order to solve
problems we don’t even
know are problems yet.

David Warlick – Connect Learning blog

www.mi-life.org

Question for Administrators?

How do we do this?
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Did you know . . .

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There are over 100 million

registered users of MySpace.
(August 2006)
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The average MySpace page is

visited 30 times a day. . .
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or 17,000 hits per second.

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Did you know . . .

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We are living in exponential

times.
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There are over 2.7 billion

searches performed on
Google each month…
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which indexed 25 billion web

pages in 2005
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up from 25 million in 7 years

earlier.
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To whom were these

questions addressed B.G.?
(Before Google)
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Question:
When did the word “Google”
become a verb?
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The number of text messages

sent and received every day
exceeds the population of the
planet.
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At a cost of $50 billion in

2004.
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By their 21 birthday, digital kids

st

will have sent/received 250,000

emails/IMs . . .
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spent 10,000 hours on the

phone,
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and watched 20,000 hours of TV

(with 500,000 commercials).
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Kids use electronic media

6.5 hours a day into which
they pack 8.5 hours of
exposure to that media.
How?
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They multitask.
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It’s estimated that 1.5

exabytes (that’s 1.5 x 1018) of
unique new information will
be generated worldwide this
year.
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That’s estimated to be more

than in the previous 5,000
years.
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The amount of new technical

information is doubling every
2 years.
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That means for a student

starting a four-year technical
or college degree . . .
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half of what they learn in their

first year of study will be
outdated by their third year of
study.
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It’s predicted to double every

72 hours by 2010.
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Predictions are that

e-paper will be cheaper than
real paper.
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Third generation fiber optics

has recently been separately
tested by NEC and Alcatel . . .
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That pushes 10 trillion bits per

second down one strand of fiber.
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That’s 1,900 CDs or 150 million

simultaneous phone calls every
second.
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It’s currently tripling about every

6 months and is expected to do
so for at least the next 20 years.
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The fiber is already there;

switches are just being
improved on the ends. . . which
means the marginal cost of
these improvements is
effectively $0.
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47 million laptops were

shipped worldwide last year.
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The $100 laptop project is

expecting to ship between 50
and 100 million laptops a year to
children in underdeveloped
countries.
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College freshmen identify

the iPod as more “in” than
beer.
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What does it all mean?

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Preparing our children for a

future that we cannot even
describe requires of
educators more than we
have ever expected before.

David Warlick
www.mi-life.org

Shift Happens.

With thanks to Karl Fisch, Arapahoe High School,

Centennial, CO - The Fischbowl
 We know…
ZCHS is a successful school
Our success is a result of the work that
staff and students do together
We have a responsibility to continue to
add value to students’ educational
experiences by providing coursework and
learning situations that extend upon those
already in place.
 We know…
Integrating knowledge and skills from various
disciplines will extend a student’s preparedness
for life and work in an increasingly fast-paced
information age.
We can add value as an educational service
provider by expanding the ways we help
students with this preparation.
One such way is to offer more programming that
integrates knowledge and skills from various
disciplines simultaneously—as is done by nearly
all knowledge workers in today’s workplace.
 Finally, we know…
Student engagement supercharges
student learning.
Varying learning modalities increases
student engagement.
Student interest-based projects increase
student engagement.
Student choice, novelty, and variety in
learning are proven to increase student
engagement.
 Moving Forward
It is imperative that we add even more
instructional value by simultaneously
expanding student academic opportunities
and student engagement.
We must push to allow students to interact
with knowledge and learning in expanded
ways so that they are optimally prepared
for future academic and professional work.
Student Interest Driven
Multidisciplinary Instruction
 Student Interest Driven
Students, with guidance, would generate
questions that a program of study would
seek to explore, answer, present, and
defend.
Appropriate course standards would be
meshed with the student’s interest areas in
ways that lead to course credit—ideally,
across various disciplines
 Interdisciplinary
At ZCHS, Interdisciplinary has meant two
courses working together where common
overlaps occur

Course 1

Course 2
 Multidisciplinary
We must push this version of student experience forward
by including two or more subjects/courses and anchor
them with a unifying (student!) interest or interests.

Course
Course
2
1

INTEREST/ Course 3
AREA

Others have done it in both non-credit and credit

granting high school settings, and they have seen
student engagement soar!
 Course Selection
Students have the freedom to choose courses in
which they would like to earn credit.
In year one students will be limited to choose
course credits from the discipline domains of
English, science, and social studies.
The individualization of the student’s course of
study allows them to receive credit in courses
that typically do not have enough students to
create a section of the course within the
traditional schedule.
 Possible Examples
How can viable and sustainable domestic
water sources reach Sub-Saharan Africa?
(Environmental science, geography,
international studies)
How might the current generation of digital
natives change the world of work?
(Sociology, language, communications,
psychology, government)
How have scientific and technological
advancements created and enhanced crime
scene investigation? (Forensics, government,
psychology)
 Student Work
College level research that includes primary
source and peer reviewed journals
Students also access resources via technologies
and human interactions on-site and through off-
site experiences whenever necessary and
appropriate
Student work products vary based on the areas
of study, student interest and ability
All final work products/presentations would
involve a juried “defense” phase
 Student Work cont.
Students will be held accountable for
progress and a high level of work product.
While this accountability will not often involve
traditional paper and pencil or otherwise
summative assessments, the work will
nonetheless remain rigorous.
Students will have the opportunity to discuss
and help design accountability measures.
Teachers will collaborate with one another
and with students to ensure that student
activities and work conform to the course
standards.
 Teacher Roles
1. Guide, resource, creator and conductor of
academic explorations for a group of students --
ideally this teacher’s content area would be a
primary content area of study for these students
2. Generalist with high level content specialty:
Instructor of record for any student seeking credit
in the teacher’s content area -- teacher ensures
that student work meets all of the course
standards required to award credit
3. Facilitator and juror: Aids in every way possible to
foster student growth/success—and helps the
student prove these in authentic, measurable
ways
 Teacher work detail…
Director of Studies
 Help students construct research
questions/areas with sufficient sophistication
to warrant inclusion of multiple disciplines
 Meet regularly with each student to monitor
progress and assess/assist with student needs
 Establish benchmarks, rubrics, and practice
juries to build students’ confidence as students
move toward culminating exhibition/defense
 Advocate for student needs
 Teacher Work detail…
Instructor of Record
 Ensures that content standards are met through
primary and secondary academic experiences
 Establishes understanding with each student about
work products, timelines, for-credit course obligations,
and success benchmarks
 Presents at least one weekly “expert seminar” in a
topic/content niche designed to assist wide array of
students working on various projects
 Available as guide and resource for students
Teacher/Student Accountability

Teachers will be expected to have regularly

scheduled meetings with students to help
assure that course standards, benchmarks,
and assessments are being completed in a
timely fashion.
A student’s teacher of record will be expected
to have a one-to-one meeting with the
student at least once a week to chart
progress, assess work, and plan next steps
for the student’s program of study.
 About Honors Point Courses
If the course a student is seeking credit in
is an Honors Point course, he/she would
receive the honors point for credit earned
via the multi-disciplinary program.
Example: Adv Biology - Genetics is a non-
AP honors course, and so, the Honors
Point could be earned and appear on the
transcript if this credit were earned in the
multi-disciplinary course offering.
 About Advanced Placement
Students could engage in a multi-disciplinary
course of study and be more than prepared for
the Advance Placement (AP) exam.
To have the AP course title (and subsequent
weighted point) appear on his/her high school
transcript, the student must take the AP course.
The multi-disciplinary course of study will not
provide AP credit due to the College Board’s
ownership of the specific AP curriculum content.
 Where and When
Start in Fall 2007
Working toward space on this campus
able to handle such work
 Large “intellectual commons”
 Classroom and conference spaces
Three period block of time, potentially a
morning group and a different afternoon
group
 Timeline
Week of 5-14-07 – Meet with all sophomore and junior students
to describe the multi disciplinary course(s) and distribute the
application.
Week of 5-21-07 – Receive applications by May 25
Week of 5-28-07 – Parent and student candidate meetings.
Individual meeting with students and parents to go over
application, if desired.
Weeks of 6-4 through 6-18-07 – Application review, acceptance
notification, and staffing.
July 13, 2007 – Final day for students/parents to signal
acceptance to the multi disciplinary course(s) for fall 2007.
Weeks of July 16 and 23, 2007 – Wait listed (if any) students will
receive notification if student non-acceptance of MD course
placement creates an opportunity to participate.
Week of August 20, 2007 – Multi-disciplinary studies begin at
ZCHS.
Thank You