To effectively demonstrate the idea of the interrelatedness of all people, divide students into small groups. Assign each group a different topic comparing society to different things with a variety of parts working together. "Society is like the respiratory system" or "Society is like a football team" are some ideas. Have students brainstorm ideas about how societies function in relation to other organizations with many individual parts. Students may record ideas on large tablet chart paper to share with the class during a large group discussion.
Designing a Rube Goldberg machine is a creative, fun way to illustrate how interactions and malfunctions affect a whole. According to Webster's New World Dictionary, a Rube Goldberg machine is "a comically involved, complicated invention laboriously contrived to perform a simple operation." Typically, these contraptions are devised by creating a series of interactions working together to create an end result. For example, a line of dominoes is set to fall, hitting a lever that catapults a ball onto a ramp that rolls down to ring a bell. When the parts work well separately, the interactions create a functional whole.
Divide students in small groups and present each with a variety of concrete objects. For example, present an orange, a boot and a hairnet in one collection. Have students discuss the function of each object, and the function of a part of the object. The orange peel functions to protect the orange. The orange functions to provide food and vitamin C to a person. The person functions to lead a group of students in a study of functionalism. This activity can spur lively discussions related to functionalism theory.
Teaching functionalism through a more involved project-based lesson is also an option to impart the importance of interconnectedness. Assign students to engage in a handicraft like embroidery, knitting or crochet. Discuss the artistic principles inherent in design while creating a functional work like a potholder, placemat or skull cap. Students will gain an understanding of how each thread or string works together to form a whole, thus creating an item with purpose and function.