Grade 8 Students Complete Global Issues Global Solutions Project

Last week, Grade 8 students wrapped up their Interdisciplinary Unit - Global Issues Global Solutions, which combined their learning and skills from Individuals and Societies classes and Science classes. The International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum is built to help students connect their learnings between subjects and develop problem-solving skills, and the Global Issues Global Solutions Unit is a great example of interdisciplinary learning at ISI. 

For the Global Issues Global Solutions project, students were each assigned a Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC). They spent time investigating the history of their country and, through their research, learned about diseases that threaten the countries, as well as environmental, economic, and social issues the LEDC may be facing. 

Students then narrowed their project topic down to one developmental issue their LEDC is facing and proposed a potential solution. Their solutions drew from their learnings in both Science and Individuals and Societies. 

"Overall goal of the unit is to get students thinking about how subjects can complement each other to provide a clear picture of the world around them. Using knowledge from each subject area, they can consider developmental issues in their assigned countries, and begin creating solutions to these issues,” Upper School Humanities Teacher Nate Gardiner said. “Many students were able to articulate their interdisciplinary learning and created intriguing and innovative solutions to various developmental issues. The community service project they are proposing to combat these issues challenges them to apply real world understanding and situations when creating their solutions."

This project is also an opportunity for students to work on their presentation skills, as it ends with a showcase of their process and solutions to the ISI community. In addition, students will be explaining what an Interdisciplinary Unit is and how they have learned about their LEDC from an interdisciplinary lens.