Social Studies

Students will explore how society uses the Earth's resources to meet our most basic needs for food, water and shelter, and how those same resources influence how and where we live. Through our use and misuse of technology, students will see how we impact the world around us and conversely, how the forces of the ever-changing Earth shape our lives as well.

Imagine that someone from another country has asked you to describe the United States in a single sentence -- not an easy task! However, dividing America into regions and comparing and contrasting them can help explain our nation's unique natural, physical and cultural features.

Why do people settle where they do? Why do populations move from one place to another? In Human Systems, students will appreciate the role that the physical characteristics of Earth have played in determining where and how people live, and explore the notion that where and how we live has a huge impact on our planet.

Earth is a vast, diverse and complicated place, but breaking it down into regions allows us to simplify the whole. In Places & Regions, students will understand the physical and human characteristics that combine to form the areas we create to interpret our planet's complexity.

In this program, students will learn about cartography and technologies such as GIS, GPS and databases that geographers use to help us see the regular and recurring patterns in Earth's physical and human systems. These tools not only help us see and understand the world's patterns, but also help to make our planet a more comprehensible and fascinating place.

Explore the agricultural practices and technological devices that led to the rise of civilization in Mesopotamia. Meet the nomadic people who became farmers, and see how they established city-states, developed specialized work skills, and advanced organized religion.

In the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Sumerians developed a written language. Examine how they carved cuneiform characters into clay tablets. Then explore Sumerian folktales.

For the Sumerians, the Tigris River served as an important early trade route. They used it to obtain scarce commodities, such as metal and wood, in exchange for their grain. See how they traveled by river and over land to trade with India and Egypt. Then examine how technological advances, such as the cart, facilitated transporting people and goods.

Examines the creation of the court and follows it through the brink of the Civil War, paying particular attention to the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court - John Marshall - and to his successor, Roger Taney. Volume 1

Explores the issues before the court from the aftermath of the Civil War through the 1930s. This was a period of unprecedented economic growth as the nation industrialized, but was also a time of unregulated work conditions - the court found itself squarely in the middle of what was almost class warfare. Volume 2

Focuses on the court's reaction to state and federal legislation on Bill of Rights freedoms, with special attention to the explosion of civil rights cases from the early 1940s to the present. Volume 3

Details the court from the election of President Richard Nixon - who appointed 4 new justices in less than two years - through to the more recent Court of today. During this period one man put his stamp on the institution and solidified and enhanced the power of the Court in the modern area - William H. Rehnquist. Volume 4

Based on the traditional American folksong, this compelling tale recounts the daring adventures of one family's escape from slavery via the Underground Railroad. This touching story captures all the drama of a perilous flight to freedom.

Features the first four of ten documentaries on major events in American history and includes the Pequot War, Shay's Rebellion, the California gold rush, and the Battle of Antietam

Features three of ten documentaries on major events in American history and includes the Homestead Strike, the assassination of William McKinley and the Scopes trial