Unique to this market, this book's philosophical and theoretical premises value interdisciplinary themes as vehicles for inquiry learning by students in upper elementary grades. It defines inquiry learning as a means for teachers and students to develop study topics into themes, formulate questions about the thematic content, find and engage various resources to explore questions, and take big ideas from their findings. The authors suggest ways that current and future teachers can apply the text's instructional ideas to discover their own personal styles of thematic curriculum development through interdisciplinary inquiry.