Students will study the period after World War II and how it has been characterized by an ideological and political struggle, first between the United States and communism during the Cold War, then between the United States and forces of instability in the Middle East. In addition, students will investigate increased economic interdependence and competition, as well as environmental concerns, as just a few of the challenges faced by the United States.
The Mediterranean world was reshaped with the fall of the Roman Empire. Three distinct cultural regions developed: feudal Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic caliphates. These regions interacted with each other and clashed over control of holy lands. In this unit, students will study the overexpansion, corruption, invasions, civil wars, and discord that led to the fall of Rome and led to the rise of Feudalism. Students will examine the Byzantine Empire and how Islam spread within the Mediterranean region from southwest Asia to northern Africa and the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, students will investigate how competition and rivalry over religious, economic, and political control over holy lands led to conflict such as the Crusades.
UPDATED FOR 2021-22: In this unit students will learn to use statistical questions and methods for gathering data to answer questions. They will calculate measures of center and measures of variability and create different data displays. They will use theoretical and experimental probabilities to make predictions. They will implement the four-step investigative process by stating their statistical questions, explaining the plan they used to collect data, analyzing data numerically and with graphs, and interpreting their results as related to their questions.
The political systems of the Western Hemisphere vary in structure and organization across time and place. In this unit, students will study how government structures, functions, and founding documents vary from place to place in the countries of the Western Hemisphere. Students will explore legal, political, and historic documents that define the values, beliefs, and principles of constitutional democracy and how across time and place, different groups of people in the Western Hemisphere have struggled and fought for equality and civil rights or sovereignty. In addition, students will investigate Multinational organizations and nongovernmental organizations in the Western Hemisphere who seek to encourage cooperation between nations, protect human rights, support economic development, and provide assistance in challenging situations.
Students will learn to use functions to model relationships between quantities. The students will develop an understanding of congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software. They will also learn to investigate patterns of association in bivariate data.
Driven by political and economic motives, the United States expanded its physical boundaries to the Pacific Ocean between 1800 and 1860. This settlement displaced Native Americans as the frontier was pushed westward. In this unit, students will study how Native Americans lost land and were forced to move and will also explore the physical westward expansion of the United States and the extensive outcomes, opportunities and negative effects that came from this time period.
The peoples of the Western Hemisphere have developed various ways to meet their needs and wants. Many of the countries of the Western Hemisphere trade with each other, as well as with other countries around the world. In this unit, students will study how different types of economic systems have developed across time and place within the Western Hemisphere. Students will also explore how peoples of the Western Hemisphere have engaged in a variety of economic activities to meet their needs and wants including trade and how trade lead to interdependence among them.
After World War II, the population of the United States rose sharply as a result of both natural increases and immigration. Population movements have resulted in changes to the American landscape and shifting political power. An aging population is affecting the economy and straining public resources. In this unit students will examine the impact of the war on shifts in the population, demographics and infrastructure of America.
Trade networks promoted the exchange and diffusion of language, belief systems, tools, intellectual ideas, inventions, and diseases. In this unit, students will study major Afro-Eurasian trade networks connecting the East and the West and how ideas, people, technologies, products, and diseases moved along these routes. Students will explore how the Mongols served as important agents of change and cultural diffusion and fostered connections between the East and the West. In addition, students will investigate how complex societies and civilizations adapted and designed technologies for transportation.
Students will study westward expansion and how the industrialization of the North, and the increase of slavery in the South contributed to the growth of sectionalism. Students will investigate Constitutional conflicts between advocates of states’ rights and supporters of federal power and how this increased tensions in the nation. In addition, students will explore how attempts to compromise ultimately failed to keep the nation together, leading to the Civil War and the outcome and lasting effects of this historic battle.
