To encourage a love of learning and build a student’s depth of understanding, look for educational materials that bridge subject matter across all disciplines, teach critical thinking skills, and encourage a mindset of discovery.

The “system of discovery” learned in a good science class will teach students how to think through facts or problems and provide a transfer process for learning:  When you understand that “like dissolves like” from a chemistry lesson and apply that to choosing a solvent to remove chewing gum from fabric, you have attained added depth of understanding.

In a book called “Understanding by Design,” Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe make several related points:

 “Understanding is a family of related abilities…including being able to explain through supported data, facts, and phenomena...being able to interpret (using scientific, historical, or philosophical viewpoints)…being able to apply what they have learned in diverse contexts, and having perspective by hearing different viewpoints through a critical lens.”

A framework of “diverse contexts” and “having perspective by hearing different viewpoints” can be achieved, for example, when students learn about how and why a scientific discovery was made at particular time. What were the connections for a specific discovery to the development of the arts or technology at that time? How does each society’s history of who was in power change what knowledge was acceptable or pursued?

A good example from history might be the rapid development of atomic knowledge during World War II. Because the U.S. and other governments saw the potential for a powerful weapon, the knowledge base of nuclear physics increased at a faster rate than it logically would have otherwise. This type linking of information from world affairs and science provides a deeper understanding of how and why. The bonus for students is that this knowledge, presented not for rote memorization but for context, can be quite interesting and fun.