Students presenting their project
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School in Salt Lake City has adopted a dynamic approach to education through cross-curricular teaching, blending various disciplines to offer students a comprehensive understanding of knowledge interconnectedness. This method acknowledges that real-life challenges don’t conform to single subject areas, promoting collaboration among teachers to create a unified learning experience that enhances critical thinking and prepares students for a future requiring multifaceted knowledge application.
A key feature of this approach is project-based learning, where students undertake assignments incorporating skills and knowledge from multiple subjects. Examples of cross-curricular projects include:
Advent Project: Ms. Johnson’s fourth-grade class integrated English Language Arts, art, STEM, and religion through activities surrounding the story of Jesus’ birth. This included summarizing the story, drawing detailed pictures, building a manger, and incorporating math to calculate distances related to the story.
Middle School Academy: Eighth-grade students completed a history and ELA project by creating colonial newspapers, blending writing, research, and artistic skills. The newspapers featured articles on historical events, ads, obituaries, sports, weather, and comics, all requiring research to ensure accuracy for the time period.
Cross-curricular teaching is implemented across all grade levels, preparing students for high school and beyond by fostering problem-solving skills and connecting classroom learning to real-world applications. This approach is celebrated for its ability to engage students by linking their interests across different subjects, making education more relevant and realistic.