Why Our Students Learned About Poems in STEM Class
Cross-Curricular Learning - An Important Skill
Haiku Poetry is an ancient art form with a purpose. Traditional, structured and usually unrhyming, Haikus are a favorite among poets for their challenge to paint a vivid picture in just a few words. A practice of artistic discipline, the haiku’s minimal nature requires poets to pare down to only the essentials—making each word, or even syllable, count.
While it may seem that poetry doesn’t belong in a STEM class, this cross-curricular activity helps students understand the connections between their subjects while also developing their critical-thinking skills, creativity, and vocabulary. In Science class, students are often asked to work through content that is quite structured, leaving little margin for error. The structure of a Haiku serves a similar purpose – limited word use and restricted syllables; however, there is a creativity to the writing that encourages students to explore and have some fun. Exploration and fun should be at the centre of any good science experiment!
Following Miss Kritrika's STEM class on Haiku poems, our students headed into World Enrichment with Miss Leach and asked to further study Haiku poems. Cross-curricular and integrated learning helps our students understand that the world does not exist in silos and to have a more wholistic understanding of their learning.