Many children do not enjoy social studies because they see it as having little, if any, relevance to their lives. That response is attributable primarily to two factors: Dry content and even drier instructional strategies. Teachers know that if material presented to children is not meaningful and relevant to their lives, real learning does not…

This volume presents a framework for developing courses of study in geography at grade levels 7-12. Several sample courses illustrate how the framework may be used. Five fundamental themes in geographic education provide the basis for the framework. The suggested learning opportunities are designed to incorporate various levels of thinking. These…

Turkey, a large non-Arab Muslim country at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, has been an economic and strategic partner with the United States. This unit, designed for elementary students, provides a text, questions, mapping skills activities, and fun activities. Students read information about Turkey to gain an appreciation of life in…

The geography lesson plans included in this packet of materials were prepared for middle school students. Lessons are divided into three categories according to the present school social studies curriculum: world cultures, United States history, and interdisciplinary focus. The lesson plans incorporate the five fundamental themes of location,…

This guide is offered as a framework on which a comprehensive curriculum can be built. Within each subject area and grade level, skills have been identified at three instructional levels: basic, developmental, and extension. The study of political and economic systems, citizenship rights and responsibilities, and the foundations of the U.S.…

The course content is organized around 15 major concepts and ideas identified as fundamental to the social studies program. The concepts are: (1) change, (2) choice, (3) citizenship, (4) culture, (5) diversity, (6) empathy, (7) environment, (8) human rights, (9) identity, (10) interdependence, (11) justice, (12) political system, (13) power, (14)…

The paper describes possible approaches to career education in the social studies curriculum and suggests criteria for decision-making strategies and assessing readiness for change. The first section describes roles of career education in social studies which range from doing nothing to replacing the total present content with career education.…

Provides 10 class activities for primary grade students on the five themes of geography. Activities cover location, place, human and environment interaction, movement, and region. (LS)

This document lists and outlines the specific educational objectives of the content of the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress's Geography Assessment. The document is divided into two sections: "Assessment Specifications" and "Exercise Specifications." The "Assessment Specifications" provide an overall…

This thesis attempts to analyze one particular aspect of the development activities of some fifty social studies projects, namely, the role of political science and its materials within the projects. The paper is divided into four chapters. The first seeks to give a brief analysis of the curriculum development projects in recent years in terms of:…