Geography and natural history curriculums integration for secondary schools - example of the living nature of America

Classical frontal teaching, where pupils are supposed to listen to the teacher and make notes is becoming stereotypical. Therefore I decided to focus on a topic where I can apply more teaching methods both in Geography lessons and Biology ones. The goal of this work was to create a teaching guide including necessary materials covering the topic of American natural lanscapes and afterwards to evaluate the contribution of these activities. The teaching materials were tested in two classes in The Basic School in Dolní Břežany. Both classes underwent a pretest, the first posttest (immediately after the experimental lessons), the second posttest (six weeks after the experimental lessons) and pupils also tried activities in which they had to apply their achieved knowledge. The data were evaluated using statistical analyses where the results showed a progress of gained knowledge between the pretest and the first posttest, whereas their knowledge did not significantly differ between the first and second posttest. It can be concluded that pupils broadened their knowledge, which was deeper than at the beginning and the pupils were able to retain this knowledge for a longer time. Key words: North America, South America, natural lanscapes, Biology, Geography, activating teaching methods, curriculum integratio