Described in this guide is a thirty-six week, interdisciplinary, urban social studies course for 8th grade students that is designed to involve students in the substance and process of urban problems. The major objective is to prepare students to live and survive in an urban environment. The program emphasizes a process approach to thinking, stressing inquiry training, problem solving, and value clarification. Substantive, value, and method concepts from the social sciences are developed in an attempt to stimulate thinking. Each unit and subunit states specific objectives in performance terms, provides teaching strategies, includes related activities, and lists basic and supplementary materials. The four major units nearly all of three weeks duration (as are the subunits), are: I. Social studies skills workshop; II. Perspectives of the urban scene (two subunits); III. The people of the city; and, IV. Challenges of the urban scene (seven subunits of topics on city problems). A variety of multi-media materials, comprised of differing reading levels and multi-ethnic materials are used. (SJM)