"Interdisciplinarity" is a fancy word academics like to use to show that they can pronounce a lot of syllables and read books from two different sections of the library.

But it's also a way to help add cohesion to a class's learning experience by focusing several lessons from several subject areas around a common theme.

However you slice it, interdisciplinarity (not even Microsoft Word thinks it's an actual word) integrates topics and approaches that otherwise may not cross paths. And showing students connections between areas that are usually siloed off can help them develop their own skills in making creative links and provide a more accurate and engaging reflection of what real-life research—and real life in general—can look like.

Let's get an official-like definition on the table. Heidi Hayes Jacobs literally wrote the book on Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation (and named it that, too), and this is what she says: interdisciplinary learning incorporates "a knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, topic, issue, problem, or work" (source).

So, basically what we said. But fancier.

Let's get into the how-tos.

A Step-by-Step Guide to your Interdisciplinary Curriculum

1. Pick some learning objectives. They should cover a range of whatever topics you want to cover.
2. If you're in charge of all of those subjects, start thinking of how to make them cohere. If you'll need to work with the teachers in charge of those other topics, get 'em on board this ship before it sets out to sea.
3. Decide on the central theme (or topic, issue, problem, or work, as Heidi says). All the topics will need to revolve around that center. Hold your horses—we'll get into examples in a bit.
4. Think of ways to get at that theme that simultaneously get at the learning objectives.
5. Develop individual lessons, assignments, and assessments to fill out the unit for your class.

There you have it. Easy, right? Okay, fine, it's hard to imagine in an abstract kinda way. So you can look at Thirteen.org's interdisciplinary implementation page for a very, very in-depth planning process.

And in the meantime, let's fire away with those examples we promised.

Picking a Theme

Make it broad. Make it something with a lot of angles.

Even if you have to stretch a bit, you should be able to find a way to incorporate lessons from whichever set of disciplines you're trying to bring together.

So, the examples.

Topic: Aztec Civilization

• From a social studies or history angle, you promote their exploring of a different culture by having them research Aztec social structures or trace links between Aztec history and modern elements of Mexican society.
• From a math angle, you diagram those sweet ancient ruins and calculate the angles to the top of those pyramids.
• From a foreign language angle, you learn the Spanish words for "Aztec," "civilization," and "sacrifice" (among other things).
• From a civics or debate angle, you ask whether the fall of the Aztec empire tell us anything about our world today.

Text: Midnight's Children (the controversial mammoth by Salman Rushdie)

• From a math angle, you calculate the distances and latitudes and longitudes of the various migrations that take place throughout the book.
• From a theater angle, you arrange presentations or skits to represent the different "children."
• In an advisory (or if you're careful, debate) format, you discuss the complex approach to race leveled in the book.
• From a 21st-century angle, you do a twitter role-play as the different characters to try out literary analysis with a techie twist.

Theme: The Olympics (thanks to this slideshow by Kevin Hull, and slides 10-13 in particular, for this idea)

• From a history angle, you take a peek at Ancient Greece and how the Games originated.
• From a math angle, you gather statistics on a particular sport or figure out how points are calculated for the perfect dive.
• From a science angle, you plot out nutritious meals for athletes or look at how technology has changed them.
• From a music angle, you learn to play a few different national anthems. And that way you bring in the cultural studies angle, too.

Problem: Treatment of Animals

• From a science angle, you ask what lab procedures are undertaken and what's the molecular composition of the chemicals involved.
• From a lit angle, you read Black Beauty or The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (depending on which side of the story you want to show).
• From a politics angle (which can be made lighter in a lower-level social studies class), you talk about the laws that are in place to protect animals and debate whether they're effective or what else should be instituted.
• From an art angle, you draw posters of doggies and kitties and monkeys and fishies. What better learning objective than that?

Find more videos, examples of interdisciplinary curricula at work in the classroom, and sites with more information or ideas on the demonstration page of Thirteen.org's module on interdisciplinary learning.

Is This Really a Good Idea?

Did you not just read what we said about kitties and doggies? And you need more convincing? Well, suit yourself…

So, for realz. A couple problems that may come up (as outlined on a page by Heidi Hayes Jacobs herself on the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development website) include, first, what she calls the "potpourri problem"—what might happen when you're sampling from a range of subjects without coherently tying them together—and second, the fact that some teachers can get territorial.

For example, say you want to talk about the actual biological process that takes place in Madame Bovary's final death throes (oh oops, should we have said spoiler alert?). But maybe the bio teacher isn't ready to get to the arsenic unit, and thinks no other teacher can do justice to his subject. What to do?

In general, you can get at both problems by being very deliberate in your design scheme. That's how you make sure that your curriculum has "a scope and sequence, a cognitive taxonomy to encourage thinking skills, behavioral indicators of attitudinal change, and a solid evaluation scheme" (source).

That's a lot to keep track of. But if you stick to your theme and design your lessons so that each discipline that gets attention gets rigorous and accurate attention, too, you'll be pretty much golden.

In Other Words: Yes, It Is.

Let's list out a few of the benefits of using an interdisciplinary curriculum (discussed at greater length by our friend Heidi right here). The method can

• give teachers tools to address issues like fragmentation of material covered and isolated skill instruction;
• help students develop the ability to think in broad strokes, as well as make creative links;
• not only feed students more knowledge, but also do so in a way that is more closely related to the ways they will work in the professional world;
• make lessons more relevant and engaging;
• develop students' "skills and thinking processes" (source) in a more exciting and engaging way through its innovative links;
• challenge students to think in new ways and actually be excited about the process of doing so.

Sure, it can be tough to implement—whether that means working with others or plotting it all out yourself. But the rewards can be even bigger than hearing your students properly pronounce "interdisciplinary."