Interdisciplinary Units

For English and social studies, students learned about source validity and citing sources. Students were tasked with finding relevant and reliable web resources to gather information on climate change. Students learned to quote information from their sources and to cite their sources. 

Pictured above, students collaborate with MOSAIC mentors during the interdisciplinary unit as they searched the web looking for reliable sources.

In visual arts, students learned about Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson. In his pieces, Eliasson shows audiences to ponder on the issue of climate change through powerful, striking experiences, leaving viewers to think more deeply about how humanity is impacting our planet. Students also learned watercolor techniques to create a watercolor painting depicting climate change. 

In History, students examined the different reasons for immigration, known as push and pull factors. Students also analyzed current issues at the U.S. southern border, including some of the more controversial immigration policies of the last decade. As a final project in History and English, students could write an essay and/or give a presentation answering the question, "Should the immigration policies of the United States be more strict, less strict, or stay the same?" The video on this page is one of our students, Edgar Fuentes, giving his video presentation. 

CLIMATE CHANGE UNIT

In math, students were given a scatter plot and the regression line equation. Students had to interpret the parts (slope, y-intercept, independent and dependent variables) of the regression equation in terms of the context of the scatter plot.

In science, students chose a real-world example of how they could help reduce greenhouse gasses. Students created a presentation with a description of anthropomorphic climate change. 

IMMIGRATION UNIT

In English, students did readings & worked in groups to discuss the economic aspects of immigration. They then wrote about that and did presentations.

For math, students created a bar graph and line graph that represents four different data sets and developed its scale.  Students analyze data presented in bar and line graphs. They describe the shape and important features of a set of data and compared related data sets, with an emphasis on how the data are distributed. They also created a pie graph, converting raw data into percentages and then to degrees. Finally, the students compared different representations of the same data and evaluate how well each representation shows important aspects of the data.

In science, students chose one aspect of immigration, either with evolution and gene flow or disease. Students were able to choose how rats spread plague, how plague came to California, or how genetic illness have followed human migration routes, to name a few. Students researched, cited sources, and created a visual slide shows which they presented.  

In Spanish, students watched excerpts of the documentary "Which Way Home" which follows the journey of unaccompanied minors traveling toward the U.S. border. Students were able to use their listening skills to answer comprehension and inferencing questions. They also created a t-chart where they listed the push and pull factors of immigration. Students also learned about the train called "la bestia" which is utilized by many immigrants and drew maps in Nearpod to illustrate its routes.