Interdisciplinarity facts for kids

Interdisciplinarity is a way of working where different school subjects or areas of study join forces. This happens when a problem is too big or complex for just one subject to handle. Think of it like a team-up of superheroes, but instead of superpowers, they have different kinds of knowledge! Other similar words are multidisciplinarity and crossdisciplinarity.

What is Interdisciplinarity?

Interdisciplinarity means that people from different fields share their ideas and methods. They combine their knowledge to understand something better or solve a problem. It's like building a puzzle where each subject brings a different piece.

Why Subjects Team Up

Sometimes, a problem is so complex that no single subject has all the answers. For example, understanding how a living cell works needs more than just biology. It needs chemistry to know about the molecules, physics to understand forces, and genetics to study DNA.

Real-World Examples

• Cell Biology: To study tiny living cells, scientists from genetics, physics, chemistry, and cytology (the study of cells) all work together. When they combine their knowledge, they create new fields like cell biology (studying cells) or molecular biology (studying the tiny parts inside cells).
• Artificial Intelligence: This field combines computer science, math, and even psychology to create smart machines.
• Biomedical Engineering: This area mixes biology and engineering to design new medical tools and treatments.
• Astrophysics: This combines astronomy (the study of space) and physics to understand how stars and planets work.

Interdisciplinarity in Universities

Many universities have changed how they organize subjects. Instead of very specific departments like 'botany' (study of plants) or 'zoology' (study of animals), they now have broader 'Schools' or 'Faculties'.

New Ways of Learning

For example, a 'School of Biological Sciences' might include many different areas. Inside these bigger schools, research teams often focus on interdisciplinary problems. This could be topics like ecology (how living things interact with their environment) or cell division (how cells make copies of themselves).

Special Skills Still Needed

Even with these new broader schools, some special skills are still very important. For instance, taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming living things. You still need experts who can identify animals and plants correctly. Areas like parasitology (the study of parasites) and agricultural botany (plants used in farming) also need their own specialists.

How Staff Are Organized

In some universities, teachers and researchers are hired for big 'Schools' like Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, or Technology. Then, these staff members can join different groups or projects that best fit what they are good at. This makes it easier for people from different backgrounds to work together on exciting new discoveries.

See also

In Spanish: Interdisciplinariedad para niños