Research tells us a lot of positive things about integrating:
1. It allows students to see the connection between their learning and the real world while also allowing them to develop problem solving skills and tools that they can use among different disciplines. Teaching facts that are integrated give more meaning to the content.
2. It also helps alleviate time restraints on teachers. For example, in a lot of skills the focus on literacy and math (the areas that are given strict standardized testing for) leaves little time for science and social studies (which are still mandated by state and national curriculum). By integrating science and social studies into one unit, you are allowing your students to continue to build and work with the skills needed to pass their standardized tests while also exposing them to a variety of science and social studies topics they need to be successful in later grades and in life.
For example, you can help your students learn about World War II and the Holocaust (a social studies topic) while also integrating literacy by having your students read autobiographies, complete cause and effect charts, and sequence events to explain how the war began and how it ended. Additionally, you can take the studies further and integrate topics such as why we follow a code of ethics when completing scientific testing by showing what happens when people do not follow ethical practices while teaching. You can further integrate math into the subject by having students look at demographics of different countries have them determine the percentages of immigrants in different areas of the world before and after the war and determine what could have caused the increase or decreases in different populations.
3. The brain works best when it is recognizing patterns and connections. By showing your students how each discipline is connected to each other you are helping the brain work best and research shows that integrated curriculums make students more successful and develop a love for learning creating lifetime learners.