Social Studies Connections from science day

We have learned many different ways to cross-reference the curriculum for a particular lesson plan or unit during our Professional 1 & 2 semesters here at Northern Kentucky University. As we learn the real life facts that we will have a very limited amount of time in our classrooms to teach a vast amount of content for multiple subjects, we see just how crucial it is to combine as many subjects in one lesson as we can that will make a difference for our students. I was really surprised that we had a science day in social studies class. Growing up, I was always taught to think of the two subjects as separate. I saw many social studies connections to the science experiments that we did, as well as connections to other subjects, such as math and reading. All of the experiments can easily be connected to math by graphing the results, finding averages, measurements, etc… One way to connect social studies to the science experiments would be to include an economics connection about marketing. Students could think about the materials used for each experiment and how much they cost, how prices are set for each and the profit made from each material, etc… A second social studies connection would be the history of the materials, students could do a small research project on the different types of materials and how they have been used throughout history in different ways. They could also research how that specific material has been improved over time. Student could study what technologies are used to create or improve the materials. It would be really easy to connect all of this to literature, since there are so many great books about the science, social studies, and any topic in the world. I am glad we took the time to think about this since it will be so vital when we are student teaching and teaching in our own classroom some day.