From Ancient Greece to Mayan temples to Arabian souqs; bringing music and mathematics alive through interdisciplinary learning

Learning outcomes from interdisciplinary studies advance metacognitive skills and critical thinking and contribute to integration and assimilation of knowledge and skills, transferable to other contexts, issues or problems (Ivanitskaya et al, 2002). [...]Plato believed that music had the power to change the soul of a person, and not just their moods (Lippman, 1964). Early Arabic musical theorists based their ideas on the Greek philosophers using the idea of different modes, although the tetrachord followed a structure which split the distance between tones into four quarter-tones, rather than two semi-tones, allowing for more complexity and sophistication of sound. For us as teachers, it was interesting to note that ability-based groups were different for the different subjects, and it seemed that students naturally appreciated individuals' strengths and understood how in different activities different individuals could support the group learning.