Social Studies

Please note: In each department, not all courses are offered each year.

All students must complete four years of Social Studies, including two years of Global Studies, one year of United States History, one term of Government, and one term of Economics. The Global Studies Regents is taken at the end of the sophomore year, and the United States History and Government Regents examination is taken in June of the junior year.

World History 1, Pre-Advanced Placement – This course is geared towards preparing students to take the AP World exam. The Ancient World – reconstructing the past; establishment of first human societies; early civilizations (Mesopotamia, Nile, Indus, Yellow River); Classical Civilizations (China, Greece, Rome, Mauryan, Gupta); the Tang and Song Dynasties; growth of overland and maritime trade routes linking Eurasia and Africa; spread of belief systems (Animism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese Philosophies, Judaism, Christianity); rise and fall of the great empires (Han and Rome); the Byzantine Empire; the spread of Islam; Europe in the Middle Ages; and the Crusades.

 

World History 2, Pre-Advanced Placement – Global Interactions – Japan (early history and feudalism); impact of Mongols; trade and global interactions; end of the Middle Ages; the rise of Meso-American Empires (Olmec, Mayan, Aztec, Incan); the rise and fall of the African Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai; the Ming Dynasty; the rise of the Nation State; the rise of the Ottoman Empire; expansion of Europe to Asia, Africa and America; and global absolutism.

Global Studies 3 – The First Global Age and Age of Revolutions and Crises; The Scientific Revolution; the Enlightenment in Europe; the American and French Revolutions; the Age of Napoleon; imperialism (European colonies in Latin America, Asia and Africa); Japanese modernization and imperialism; independence movements in Latin America; political revolutions; the Industrial Revolution and the “isms” (capitalism, liberalism, nationalism, socialism, Marxism); causes and results of World War I; and the causes and impact of World War II.

 

Global Studies 4 – The Contemporary World; The start of the Cold War; the end of European colonialism in Asia, Africa and the Middle East; economic development in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America since 1945; the role of women; the United Nations; sources of world conflict since 1945; the collapse of Communism and the breakup of the Soviet Union; the environment and sustainability; and achievements in science and technology. Students take the Regents.

 

World History, Advanced Placement – (in lieu of Global 3 & 4) AP World History develops a greater understanding of the evolution of global processes and contacts in different types of human societies. The college level course highlights the nature of changes in global frameworks and their causes and consequences, as well as comparisons among major societies. It emphasizes relevant factual knowledge, leading interpretive issues, and skills in analyzing types of historical evidence. Students must commit to completing the entire year and taking the AP exam as well as the Global Regents Exam.

United States History and Government 1 and 2 – Term 1 covers the role of geography in United States history; constitutional foundations of American society through the closing of the frontier. Term 2 covers America from the Progressive Era to the present. This one year course terminates with the US History and Government Regents Exam.

 

United States History, Advanced Placement – (in lieu of US Government 1 & 2) This college level course is offered to Advanced Juniors. This course is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and issues in United States history. The course will develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in an essay format. Students must commit to completing the entire year and taking the AP exam as well as the US History and Government Regents Exam.

Participation in Government 1 Honors – The principles of government, politics and law; roles and rights of citizenship; political party system; legal obligations; public policy; and political participation.

 

Economics 1 Honors – The course objective is to provide students with a thorough introduction to economic theory. Starting from the basic ideas of tradeoffs, opportunity costs, and the benefits of trade, students will study how the market forces of supply and demand cause prices to be what they are. Students will achieve a sense of how which market economies are efficient, the ways governments can make economies more or less efficient, and how firms choose their production levels to maximize profits. This course meets the College and Career Readiness standards and receives CUNY credit.

 

Government and Politics; Comparative, Advance Placement – This course will give students an analytical perspective on government and politics in the United States. This course includes both the study of general concepts used to interpret U.S. government and politics and the analysis of specific examples. It also requires familiarity with the various institutions, groups, beliefs, and ideas that constitute U.S. government and politics. Students should become acquainted with the variety of theoretical perspectives and explanations for various behaviors and outcomes. Students successfully completing this course will: know important facts, concepts, and theories pertaining to U.S. government and politics; understand typical patterns of political processes and behavior and their consequences (including the components of political behavior, the principles used to explain or justify various government structures and procedures, and the political effects of these structures and procedures); be able to analyze and interpret basic data relevant to U.S. government and politics (including data presented in charts, tables, and other formats; and be able to critically analyze relevant theories and concepts, apply them appropriately, and develop their connections across the curriculum. This is a semester course paired with Economics 1 Honors.

 

Elective Offerings

 

Human Geography, Advanced Placement – Human Geography is the study of human activities across space. This field of geography is divided into several main subfields such as cultural geography, population geography, economic geography, political geography, behavioral geography, urban geography, and agricultural geography. Each of these subfields studies some aspect of human activities on how these activities manifest themselves on the earth’s surface. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human socioeconomic organization and its environmental consequences. They also learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their research and applications. In this course, we will study all of these subfields in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the field of human geography. This course will culminate in the AP Examination. This course is open to students in Grades 9 – 12.