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Social Science Courses

Course: Adv. Amer. Government/Amer. Government
Category: P G W
Credits: 5
Grade Level: 12
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This one semester, required, course studies the purpose, structure, and function of the United States government and of state and local governments for the purpose of preparing to be an active and informed citizen. Students learn the origin and foundation of the American government including the Constitution and the branches of government.
Course Essentials: 1. Students explain the fundamental principles and moral values of American democracy as expressed in the U.S. Constitution and other essential documents of American democracy.
2. Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the relationships among them, and how they are secured.
3. Students evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental values and principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous sphere of voluntary personal, social, and economic relations that are not part of government), their interdependence, and the meaning and importance of those values and principles for a free society.
4. Students analyze the unique roles and responsibilities of the three branches of government as established by the U.S. Constitution.
5. Students summarize landmark U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the Constitution and its amendments.
6. Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective offices. 
7. Students analyze and compare the powers and procedures of the national, state, tribal, and local governments.
8. Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the influence of the media on American political life.
9. Students analyze the origins, characteristics, and development of different political systems across time, with emphasis on the quest for political democracy, its advances, and its obstacles.
10. Students formulate questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within our constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a balance between the following concepts: majority rule and individual rights; liberty and equality; state and national authority in a federal system; civil disobedience and the rule of law; freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial; the relationship of religion and government.

Course: Adv. Cult. Geography A,B/Cult. Geography
Category: P G W
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 9-12
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This two semester, required, course examines the geographic features and environmental conditions of the earth and their impact on human beings and other life forms. Students analyze cultures throughout the world and examine the history and major issues affecting nations today. This course analyzes political, economic, and social problems for nations today with discussion for possible solutions.
Course Essentials: 1. Geography Basics
i. Map Skills, Earth features and resources, Climate, Environments and culture
2. Regions of the World
i. North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Russia and Eurasian     Republics, North and South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast   Asia, Australia, Oceania, and Antarctica
3. Geography
i. Physical, Political, Cultural
4. Contemporary Issues

Course: Adv. Economics/Economics
Category: P G W
Credits: 5
Grade Level: 12
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This one semester, required, course studies how people and countries use their resources to produce, distribute and consume goods and services. Included are considerations of traditional economic concepts and principles.
Course Essentials: 1. Students understand common economic terms and concepts and economic reasoning.
2. Students analyze the elements of America's market economy in a global setting.
3. Students analyze the influence of the federal government on the American economy.
4. Students analyze the elements of the U.S. labor market in a global setting
5. Students analyze the aggregate economic behavior of the U.S. economy
6. Students analyze issues of international trade and explain how the U.S. economy affects, and is affected by, economic forces beyond the United States' borders.

Course: Adv. U.S. History A,B/U.S. History A,B
Category: P G W
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 11
Prerequisite: Mastery of World History B/Required
Overview: This two semester, required, course develops an understanding of the value of the individual in American society, to identify and follow the development of America from exploration and colonization through the Cold War Period, and current events.
Course Essentials: 1. Students analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its attempts to realize the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of Independence.
2. Students analyze the relationship among the rise of industrialization, large-scale rural-to-urban migration, and massive immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe.
3. Students trace the rise of the United States to its role as a world power in the twentieth century.
4. Students analyze the role religion played in the founding of America, its lasting moral, social, and political impacts, and issues regarding religious liberty.
5. Students analyze the major political, social, economic, technological, and cultural developments of the 1920s.
6. Students analyze the different explanations for the Great Depression and how the New Deal fundamentally changed the role of the federal government
7. Students analyze America's participation in World War II.
8. Students analyze the economic boom and social transformation of post-World War II America.
9. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy since World War II.
10. Students analyze the development of federal civil rights and voting rights.
11. Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American society.

Course: Adv. World History A,B/World History
Category: P G W
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 9-10
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This two semester, required, course examines the cultures and history leading to the development of western civilization through study of political, economic, cultural, social, and aesthetic structures. Student will learn the formation of cultures in the non-European areas of the earth including Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America.
Course Essentials: 1. Students relate the moral and ethical principles in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, in Judaism, and in Christianity to the development of Western political thought.
a) The Classical Period - Greece, Rome, and their legacies
b) The Division of Empire - Rise of Christianity, interaction with Muslims and Slavs
2. Students compare and contrast the Glorious Revolution of England, the American Revolution, and the French Revolution and their enduring effects worldwide on the political expectations for self-government and individual liberty.
3. Students analyze the effects of the Industrial Revolution in England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
4. Students analyze patterns of global change in the era of New Imperialism in at least two of the following regions or countries: Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India, Latin America, and the Philippines.
5. Students analyze the causes and course of the First World War
6. Students analyze the effects of the First World War.
7. Students analyze the rise of totalitarian governments after World WarI.
8. Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II.
9. Students analyze the international developments in the post-World World War II world.
10. Students analyze instances of nation-building in the contemporary world in at least two of the following regions or countries: the Middle East, Africa, Mexico and other parts of Latin America, and China
11. Students analyze the integration of countries into the world economy and the information, technological, and communications revolutions (e.g., television, satellites, computers).

Course: Anthropology A,B
Category: P
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 9-10
Prerequisite: Mastery of World History or Director Approval
Overview: This two semester, college preparatory course analyzes the development of human culture through: history, environment, family life, political and social systems, religion, art, and biological needs. Students examine the impact human culture has on modern civilization.
Course Essentials: 1. Anthropology basics - Definition and scope, Sub-disciplines, Applied anthropology
2. Research methodology - Ethnography, Ethics
3. Culture - Definition, Universals vs. particulars, cultural change
4. Language - Animal communication, Nonverbal communication, Linguistics
5. Ethnicity - Ethnic groups, nations, and nationality, Coexistence, Conflict
6. Race - Socialized response, Biological repudiation
7. Evolution and genetics - Creationism vs. evolution,  genetics, adaptation
8. Primates - Generalities, Similarities with humans, Differences from humans
9. Early hominids - Dating, Australopithecines, Tools
10. Modern humans - Homo Erectus to Homo Sapiens Sapiens
11. The first farmers - Neolithic Revolution, Costs and benefits
12. Making a living - Foraging, Cultivation, Economizing, Distribution
13. Kinship and descent - Kin groups, Kinship terminology, Descent
14. Political systems - Bands and tribes, Chiefdoms, States
15. Marriage - Taboos, Endogamy, Monogamy, Polygamy
16. Gender - Sexualities, Violence, Roles
17. Religion - Origins and functions, Social control, Secular rituals
18. The arts - What is art?, Cultural transmission
19. Modern world system - Industrialization, Stratification
20. Colonialism and development - Colonialism, Development, Innovation
21. Cultural exchange and survival - Contact and domination, resistance, making and remaking culture
22. Applied anthropology - theory and practice, medical anthropology, Careers

Course: Psychology
Category: P
Credits: 5
Grade Level: 10-12
Prerequisite: Director Approval
Overview: This one semester, college preparatory course studies the complexities of individual human behavior through the study of motivation, personality, principles of learning, mental health, belonging, and child development.
Course Essentials: 1. Psychology as a discipline - definitions, Careers
2. Methods - research, samples
3. Biology and Behavior - brain, genetics
4. Sensations and perceptions  - vision, hearing, other
5. Consciousness - dreams, drugs
6. Learning - conditioning, reinforcement
7. Memory - processes, stages
8. Thinking and language - reasoning, decision-making
9. Intelligence - measurements, differences
10. Development - childhood, adolescence, adulthood
11. Motivation - biological, psychological
12. Personality - psychoanalytic, humanistic, and socio-cultural approach

Course: Social Studies 7- (World History/Geog.)
Category: Jr. H S
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 7
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This two semester course examines a chronological and geographical overview of the history of mankind. Major civilizations, including their technological, political, and religious contributions are examined, and their influence on western civilization considered.
Course Essentials: 1. Students analyze the causes and effects of the vast expansion and ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire.
2. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
3. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of China in the Middle Ages.
4. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the sub-Saharan civilizations of Ghana and Mali in Medieval Africa.
5. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Japan.
6. Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Medieval Europe.
7. Students compare and contrast the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the Meso-American and Andean civilizations.
8. Students analyze the origins, accomplishments, and geographic diffusion of the Renaissance.
9. Students analyze the historical developments of the Reformation.
10. Students analyze the historical developments of the Scientific Revolution and its lasting effect on religious, political, and cultural institutions.
11. Students analyze political and economic change in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries (the Age of Exploration, the Enlightenment, and the Age of Reason).

Course: Social Studies 8- American History
Category: Jr. H S
Credits: 10
Grade Level: 8
Prerequisite: Required
Overview: This two semester course studies the development of America from early exploration and colonization through the Cold War period and the dissolution of the eastern communist bloc. Basic features of the U.S. Constitution are also examined.
Course Essentials: 1. Students understand the major events preceding the founding of the nation and relate their significance to the development of American constitutional democracy.
2. Students analyze the political principles underlying the U.S. Constitution and compare the enumerated and implied powers of the federal government.
3. Students understand the foundation of the American political system and the ways in which citizens participate in it.
4. Students analyze the aspirations and ideals of the people of the new nation.
5. Students analyze U.S. foreign policy in the early Republic.
6. Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced, with emphasis on the Northeast.
7. Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the South from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
8. Students analyze the divergent paths of the American people in the West from 1800 to the mid-1800s and the challenges they faced.
9. Students analyze the early and steady attempts to abolish slavery and to realize the ideals of the Declaration of Independence.
10. Students analyze the multiple causes, key events, and complex consequences of the Civil War.
11. Students analyze the character and lasting consequences of Reconstruction.
12. Students analyze the transformation of the American economy and the changing social and political conditions in the United States in response to the Indus-trial Revolution.

Course: Sociology
Category: P
Credits: 5
Grade Level: 10-12
Prerequisite: Director approval
Overview: This one semester, college preparatory course studies the fundamental concepts of the group behavior and provides data and discussion of sociological analyses that reveal the complexity and multiplicity of problems confronting the United States.
Course Essentials: 1. Discipline - history of sociology, Careers
2. Diversity - culture, culture variation
3. Conformity - value systems, social change
4. Social Structure - statuses, interaction, groups
5. Socialization - agents, social self
6. Adolescent in society - dating, concept, problems
7. Adult in society - work, aging
8. Social Control - deviance, crime
9. Social Stratification - systems, American class system, poverty
10. Social Institutions - family, economy and politics, education and religion, science and sport

Course: US Military History
Category: G
Credits: 5
Grade Level: 12
Prerequisite: Mastery of U.S. History
Overview: This one semester course develops an understanding of the major events, personalities, strategies, tactics, and weapons of U.S. History.