54 | COSERE Steps in Planning Interdisciplinary Projects: A step-by-step guide to the planning process. • Engaging Peers from Other Disciplines: ◊ Every journey begins with a single step, in this case, reaching out to peers from different disciplines. Consider gauging interest in interdisciplinary collaboration using whatever internal channels your institution offers for staff; whether digitally using some form of intranet / staff social network, physical bulletin board, etc. • Establishing the Scope of the Collaboration: ◊ Classroom-Based: Interdisciplinary collaboration at this level requires “lessons to be developed and delivered in a variety of subjects including for example science, CDT, computing, English and maths, with the teachers selecting a ‘lead’ subject that will launch the project/challenge at the start and pull together the project at the end” (Graham et. al, 2023). The planning process will generally look quite similar to the collaborative lesson planning format presented in the previous subtopic, 1.2.1, “Collaborative lesson planning”. Consider reformatting the templates from this subtopic and applying them to interdisciplinary collaboration if you decide on a classroom-based initiative. ◊ Extra-Curricular: Potential exists for interdisciplinary collaboration in education that doesn’t have to be integrated in the day-to-day activities of the institution. Graham et. al reference “STEM clubs (including Young Engineers and Science Clubs) [which] provide additional projects and challenges for pupils that are set in real-life contexts and usually draw on STEM as well as non-STEM disciplines (i.e. cross-disciplinary)” in Scotland (Graham et. al, 2023). These interdisciplinary “after school club”-type activities can be an engaging way for students to absorb new knowledge without even realising it. ◊ Large-Scale: Graham et. al make mention of a form of interdisciplinary collaboration that may be understandably intimidating for newcomers to the topic; namely “[arranging] for an entire year group to be out of class at the same time. The group will be set a task or project that has an IDL theme. Pupils will then work in a hall or with specific subjects throughout the day in order to complete their project. This could for example be a forensic activity or a natural disaster aid mission. The benefit of such work is the experience for the pupil, and the prospect of being out of class for a day in a new working environment is clearly appealing to pupils” (Graham et. al,
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