Having the Rice Project link to standards across the curricular areas is one of the easiest aspects of the process. How you link subjects depends a great deal on who you want to have involved with the project, or your version of another project, in light of your overarching goals. Are you trying to provide students with an understanding of how science and math support each other? Are you attempting to have foreign language students examine the derivation of common words in today's language that represent the influence of another population from years ago? That can link to an examination of how cultures influence each other. You can take that a step further and ask if the influence of global communications will allow one culture to predominate, dilute the cultural identify of all, or make local cultures stronger as they work to protect their identity in an environment of rapid change?

Looking at from another direction, will you attempt to have the project act as a mirror to examine local issues? Will you use it to examine what factors influenced the growth or decline of your town or area? Are there parallels? Can you use the project to examine the influence of technology on daily life? For example, technology has significantly changed many aspects of agriculture. After studying some of the changes that have taken place, have students predict, based on their studies of current breakthroughs in biotechnology and other technologies, what will happen to agriculture in the future? What about the issue of urban expansion and the impact on available land for crop production?

Can the Rice Project facilitate a way for you to team your class with another in one of the seven, rice-producing states to share information back and forth about local conditions and practices?

Essentially, the Rice Project is designed to suggest that there may be other ways to approach certain instructional tasks so that multiple standards can be met at the same time. It embeds content in the technology training so that as students learn about a topic, they are also picking up technology skills. You don't stop teaching content until everyone is proficient at the other. It provides them with concrete experience of producing a public presentation, even if viewed strictly on a cd. It has them combine multiple elements - text, video, graphics, sound, Internet - to create a cohesive argument or presentation portraying a particular perspective.

South Carolina Science Standards (2001)
http://www.myscschools.com/offices/cso/Science/Sciencest.htm