STEM Innovation Academy of the Oranges

The Honors Global Studies course is modeled after the AP World History curriculum where students will investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources, developing historical arguments, making historical connections, and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change over time. The course provides six themes that students will explore in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation.

Unit 1: The Unit will examine early civilization development across the globe from c. 1200 to c. 1450. Students will examine different civilizations and see how they progressed during this time. A key focus in this unit is religion and how it shapes the culture of its followers. Another focus is on government and which ways of ruling was effective or ineffective. After introducing both aspects of religion and government, the students will examine how the two formed together shaping nations across the world. By the end of this unit, students will be able to determine how religion had an effect on controlling the masses.  The students will learn examples such as how Confucianism was used to educate and guide the people of Ancient China. They will also learn about Buddhism and Taoism that affected the social life and culture of the people in India. With numerous different religions that all had unique effects on the people that followed them, the students will get a wide view and a deep understanding of the time period.

Unit 2: The Unit will examine trade routes and networks of exchange that civilizations used to transfer goods, wealth, inventions, and ideas. This unit will explore how these trade routes came into creation and the effects they had on the civilizations using them. The unit will show how nations rose and fell due to certain trade routes, how these trade routes gave nations certain advantages, and how they caused issues in their nations as well. Students will examine the cities and communities that grew along these trade routes and helped grow their empires. 

Unit 3: The Unit will examine land-based empires and the circumstances in which they were able to grow and expand. The students will use the past innovations they learned to make connections with how the world developed.  They will learn how expanding nations kept control over their populations through taxation, religion, and governmental regulations. Religion also played a role and students will be able to see how religion changed during this time. The students will discover how trade from the previous unit connected the globe and left changes across the world.

Unit 4: The Unit will examine revolutions that happened around the world from the time period of 1700-1900. Some examples are Religion with The Enlightenment, Technological with the Industrial Revolution. Economical with government intervention in promoting a successful economy. The students examine technology that is created during this time to make connections with how the world developed. They will learn how The Enlightenment created an environment to allow for growth both religiously, governmentally, and technologically. Religion played a major role giving power to the people and taking it away from churches; showing students how religion changed during this time. The students will discover how the modern world was shaped through revolution and rebellion against the existing governments and religious systems set in place. 

Unit 5: The Unit will examine the Cold war and the effects it left in its wake. Students will begin in 1945 after WWII. Students will discover proxy wars such as the Korean war, Angolan Civil war, and other world events that pitched the United states against the Soviet Union. This unit will show the spread of communism following WWII and the global fear of communism. Decolonization will also be a focus where governments start to give up control over colonies and captured land. Advanced in Technology economy, socialization, and global reform will also be brought up as they focus in bringing the content to the modern age.

Course Objectives

Developments and Processes: Being able to identify and explain historical developments and processes. Understanding a historical concept, its development or process. Identification is the first step in understanding a historical concept, the students must take apart an historical event and look at it from different standpoints to gather the whole picture. In doing so the students start to develop their historical process and begin to understand the event at a deeper level.

Sourcing and Situation: Analyze sourcing and situation of primary and secondary sources is key in this course. Being able to identify a source’s point of view, purpose, historical situation, and/or audience is the next step in understanding an historical event. Students will learn how to explain the point of view, its purpose, historical situation, and the intended audience of the source. In doing so, the students will learn the significance of the source and its limitations.

Claims and Evidence in Sources: The next step in examining sources is analyzing the arguments in primary and secondary sources. Learning to identify and describe the claim or argument of a document is critical in history. By examining the evidence used in a source the students will see how it supports the argument made in the source. Learning to then compare the arguments in other sources is the next step. By comparing and contrasting the same arguments throughout different sources, the students will notice a trend in supporting evidence. That same evidence can be used to rebuke a counter argument to the same source. Explaining how claims/evidence support a source will be critical in this course.

Contextualization: When examining historical sources, contextualization is key. Being able to identify and describe an historical context for a specific historical event is an important skill in a history scholar. Students will use this skill to help build on their evidence and claims by interpreting the context of sources. This will then be expanded to a broader historical context by demonstrating how that source fits into a larger historical context.

Making Connections: By gathering the information, through the skills above, our goal is to make historical connections. This will be done through comparison, causation, continuity and change. We will analyze patterns and the connections between them. Identifying patterns broad and small is critical in forming connections between historical events. Once done, students will be able to explain how these historical events happened.

Argumentation: Developing a personal argument is the final step in becoming an historical scholar. Students will show historical process and how to use sources, evidence, contextualization, and connections to create historically defensible claims. Students will be able to support an argument using specific and relevant evidence. Students will explain how these specific examples are relevant to their argument. Students will use historical reasoning to explain the relationships of their historical evidence, showing the context and connections they have. By using multiple sources, students can show the depth of an historical issue and broader connections the historical piece may have. Creating an historical argument is the cumulation of all the above skills and one that will add personal thoughts to that of other historical scholars.

Learning Skills and Strategies: Decision-making (identifying situations, securing information, defining criteria, making decisions, taking action to implement the decisions, and examining and evaluating the consequences of those decisions); inquiry learning (being curious, asking powerful and complex questions, observing, investigating, and exploring to develop understanding, discussing and comparing with other works, and self-evaluating and reflecting to monitor progress);  issue analysis (defining issues and identifying key opposing positions, determining conflicting values or beliefs, summarizing opposing positions, and stating ways to persuade others to adopt your position); and, problem-based learning (introducing and discussing a real world problem, collaboratively determining what is known and what must be learned, developing and articulating a problem statement, identifying possible solutions, researching, analyzing and resolving potential solutions; and, presenting solutions with supporting documentation).