With the proliferation of constructivist ideas and methods in classrooms across the United States, including increased use of Project Based Learning (PBL) and the integration of technology, the "old" boundaries between content disciplines are becoming blurred. As you saw in Libby Manning's innovative interdisciplinary unit in Program 2 of The Internet in Action, a thematic interdisciplinary approach helps students to see connections across the curriculum, and thus helps to make individual parts of the curriculum more meaningful. And the integration of technology across content areas may also help to see and make more seamless connections and transitions between sometimes diverse subjects. Interdisciplinary projects by definition cannot be achieved by focusing narrowly on one subject area. Instead, interdisciplinary projects seek out the connections between subject areas. These projects are often based around a theme, a time period, a topic, an area of the world, or a problem or issue. Theme-based interdisciplinary projects may be particularly appropriate in elementary classrooms where one teacher may be able to interact with students for large blocks of time and choose how to structure the curriculum. An interdisciplinary project may not always come about because of a conversation or collaboration between teachers, but an interdisciplinary project will often result in such collaborations and conversations. In this case, teachers will need to hone their team building and communication skills. The assessment of learning outcomes in an interdisciplinary project will necessarily differ from the kinds of objective evaluations that might be applied to a single subject unit. In general, rubric-based assessment will be more appropriate for interdisciplinary projects. You can find out more about rubrics at the following Web sites: Just What Is a Rubric? http://www.middleweb.com/CSLB2rubric.html The Basics: What Is a 'Rubric'? http://www.rubrics.com/concepts/index.html You'll find an interesting discussion of an interdisciplinary approach in this (and other) articles at TechLearning.com - http://www.techlearning.com/db_area/archives/WCE/archives/bwolfe.htm For ideas for elementary and intermediate level interdisciplinary project themes, check out these Web pages: Thematic Planning Units - http://busboy.sped.ukans.edu/projects/theme Interdisciplinary Projects - http://www.teachersfirst.com/intrdisc.htm QuickTime Required Libby Manning  THE ROOT OF A MULTIDISCIPLINARY UNIT OR AN INQUIRY-BASED UNIT IS THAT THE STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO SEE CONNECTIONS THROUGHOUT THE CURRICULUM. THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR UNIT THAT I TEACH MEETS MANY STANDARDS. NOT ONLY DOES IT MEET THE SOCIAL STUDIES STANDARDS, WHICH ARE OBVIOUS, BUT IT ALSO MEETS LANGUAGE ARTS STANDARDS, IN THAT I AM ABLE TO INTEGRATE MY READING IN MY LANGUAGE ARTS BLOCK INTO MY SOCIAL STUDIES. BUT THE BEAUTY OF THIS IS THAT ALSO, THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY STANDARDS ARE WOVEN IN AS WELL.