Page 33 - Interdisciplinary Studies 11-12 (2002)

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, GRADE 12, UNIVERSITY PREPARATION (IDC4U/IDP4U) 31
– analyse and describe the past and current importance of organizing and storing information and resources to each of the subjects or disciplines studied (e.g., to reg- ulate copyright and patents, to preserve Aboriginal oral traditions, to share original scholarship);
– assess the effectiveness of a wide variety of print and electronic forms used in each of the subjects or disciplines studied to identify, classify, organize, store, and retrieve information (e.g., reference mate- rials, government documents and archives, scientific and academic journals, web directories);
– describe the history and role of institutions and occupations that gather, organize, and store information (e.g., libraries and librarians, postsecondary institutions and researchers, museums and curators), and explain how they meet needs and chal- lenges in each of the subjects or disci- plines studied.
Perspectives and Approaches
By the end of this course, students will:
– analyse and describe different approaches to perceiving “reality” in the subjects or disciplines studied (e.g., the role of sensory perception in the arts and in the sciences, ways in which different languages shape the cultural experiences of the people who speak them, the role of logical rea- soning in matters of faith, the effect of emotion in historical inquiry, the use of intuition as a way of knowing about per- sonal health);
– analyse and describe the different perspec- tives of various disciplines on the same topic as exemplified in key interdiscipli- nary texts (e.g., the different viewpoints of evolutionary biology, geography, and demography in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond; the varying perspectives of media study,
linguistics, and sociology [social trends] in The Gutenberg Galaxy by Marshall McLuhan) and explain how these diverse perspectives further the investigation of issues and the solving of problems;
– analyse and describe the interdisciplinary approaches used for inquiry and research in a number of specific endeavours (e.g., experimentation and computer simulation in biotechnology; statistical analysis and case study in educational psychology) and critically analyse some of the common errors that characterize poor research (e.g., selective observation, overgeneraliza- tion, falsification of data, illogical reason- ing, premature closure of inquiry);
– identify the historical development of the systems approach to solving problems and describe examples of how it has been suc- cessfully applied to solve problems in interdisciplinary endeavours (e.g., the application of systems models – physical, graphical, verbal, or mathematical repre- sentations of a system; systems paradigms – conceptual frameworks, filters, or theories used to interpret information; systems archetypes – diagrams that illustrate ways of identifying and solving problems found in different locations).
Skills and Strategies
By the end of this course, students will:
– demonstrate an understanding of the col- laborative attitudes and skills that con- tribute to the researching and creating of interdisciplinary products and activities (e.g., the ability to encourage multiple per- spectives on human development issues, to motivate others to share ideas about per- sonal financial management strategies, to refine positions and reach consensus in designing community-based information systems, to manage conflict and delegate tasks in joint research activities);