Social Studies courses at the middle school level, with the exception of South Carolina History, are non-sequential and they are taught in a manner that provides students the maximum exposure to relevant historical and geographical facts and concepts. World Geography and American History are taught to sixth and seventh graders in alternate years, and South Carolina History is taught to the Eighth grade.
World Geography
Textbook: World Geography, Building a global perspective (Prentice Hall, 1998)
This course motivates students to learn where the world's countries, major cities and landforms are located. The main goal is to teach students about the world's regions, countries and important global topics. Students explore issues related to the environment, conflict and the global economy, and the unique geographic aspects of countries within different regions. Students acquire map skills that they will encounter in everyday life, investigate concepts such as erosion and earthquakes, engage in real-world problem solving, and through the study and analysis of current events, they learn how to analyze the media's coverage of world events and their impact in the globalized world in which we live in.
Students are assessed through their class work, homework, quizzes, projects, and tests.
American History
Textbook: The American Journey (Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 1998)
In American History students study people, events, places, documents, art, inventions, and literature of the past and present. It reviews the main events Surrounding the Exploration of the Americas, The Colonial Settlement, How our Nation was Created, the New Republic, The Growth of our Nation in the mid 1800s, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, The Reshaping of a Nation in the late 1800s-early 1900s, The Reform and Expansion and World War 1, The Turbulent Decades of the First Half of the 20th Century, The Cold War, Civil Rights and Vietnam Eras, and Modern American. Students learn about the nations past and become aware of how certain events, concepts or ideas happen again and again throughout history, and how these affect and shape the nation we are today.
Students are assessed through their class work, homework, quizzes, projects, and tests.
South Carolina History
Textbook: South Carolina: The History of an American State (Clairmont Press, 2000)
Students learn about South Carolina's past in the context of four major themes established by the South Carolina Department of Education. Through these themes the students acquire the understanding of events of the past and their contemporary effects. The specifics of local government in present day are also covered. Using South Carolina as a focus, students learn how the state's cultural, political and economic systems have developed over time. They study not only the facts of South Carolina's history, but also the value of that history.
Students are assessed through their class work, homework, quizzes, projects, and tests.