Multi-disciplinary learning, blending learning between subjects, is of the strategies that Congressional takes to instill a deeper understanding of a topic for our students. When Mrs. Brock, our middle school art teacher, saw one of the techniques that 5th grade is learning for multiplication, a light bulb went off, and her and Mrs. Gaal set off to combine forces.
Mrs. Gaal has been teaching her 5th grade math students different methods of multiplication. One of those methods is a Japanese visual representation of an equation. Lines are drawn to represent a number by 1000's, 100's, 10's and 1's and are intersected by the other number represented the same way. Through counting and viewing the intersections, the answer of those numbers multiplied can be found.
In seeing the intersecting lines of this math technique, Mrs. Brock instantly thought of Piet Mondrian and his geometric, minimalistic artwork. The teachers decided to combine their classes, give each student a canvas, and let each of them create Mondrian-inspired pieces with chosen multiplication equations, thus reinforcing the subject through two disciplines.
Congressional School
Infant through Grade 8 Independent School
