Social+Studies+Cases

Cases to keep:
Communication Case 2 - Rework Content Exploration Data Analysis - Rework

= = =Productivity= **Standard**: USH.6. 2 Summarize the early struggle for civil rights and identify events and people associated with this struggle. (Government; Economics; Individuals, Society and Culture)  Mr. Perez teaches a high school US history class in Indiana. Every year, he has his students engage in a civil rights debate. The students take on different group perspectives and engage in debates (for example, Black Panthers, NAACP, KKK, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Malcolm X, Congress of Racial Equality, White Panthers, White power skinheads, Neo-nazis). The civil rights movement forced America to confront directly some enduring questions: What does it mean to be free? What is equality? What actions are justified and necessary to attain social justice? He wants his students to explore the complexity of the conflicting ideas and personalities within the movement and within the country during this time period. He would like his students to use historical documents in reasoning about these complex historical issues. Students are asked to research their group and adopt a argument based on the main issues to engage in a class-wide debate. The project takes 3-4 weeks in order to allow enough time for students to research during and after school. During class, his students look through old newspapers and articles he’s collected, as well as various propaganda from various groups. His concern is that this information is limited, and does not provide students with enough to base an argument on; their arguments tend to be very superficial. Students need to organize and synthesize the information as a group.
 * Learners**: High School Students
 * Environment:** A traditional classroom. Access to archived documents and other media (books and others) collections through the city library. The library reasonably well-stocked.

Mr. Jackson would like to improve this activity. First of all, Mr. Jackson would like to make students' time spent researching more efficient. They often have difficulties finding information on their specific group. In addition, he'd like students to get more involved in the activity; most students have been gathering information from the materials he brings to class. In order to gain access to a wider variety of resources, he's managed to reserve the computer lab for one week so that every student has access to a computer with an internet connection for five hours. However, Mr. Jackson doesn't know how to help students conduct research online or where to begin to help students collect resources.

=Content Exploration= Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
 * High School Economics:**
 * Standard**: E.1.9 Diagram and explain a Circular Flow Model of a market economy, showing households and businesses as decision makers, resource and money flows, and the three basic markets – product, productive resources and financial markets.
 * Learners**: High School Students
 * Environment:**Technology Labs

Ms. Matthews needs to explain the Circular Flow Model of a market economy to her High School economics class. The Circular Flow Model is a "picture" of a market economy in action. The Factors of Production (land, labor, capital and entrepreneurship) flow from households (consumers like you and me) to producers (businesses). Goods and services flow from producers to consumers and, in exchange, money flows in the opposite direction. Sometimes the economy flows slowly, which means there's a decrease in economic activity. Other times it flows more quickly, reflecting an increase. This is because there are lots of events and actions that can affect the flow. Ms. Matthews is finding it extremely difficult to represent these events and actions that make the market flow in an all-compassing way such that her students can develop a basic understanding of the Model. Ms. Matthews is your mentor and has specifically asked you to help her with this project. How can you help Ms. Matthews present this information in the most informative and concise manner.

=Communication= Something with Global School Network (see website) Standard:E.7.3 Describe the negative impacts of unemployment and unexpected inflation on an economy and how individuals and organizations try to protect themselves. (Individuals, Society and Culture) Every year, Mr. Barbaro works with his high school economic students on unemployment and unexpected inflation. Especially now, he feels it is important for his students to understand how unemployment impacts the economy (perhaps by speaking with unemployment offices or unemployed individuals) and how individuals and organizations are trying to protect themselves. What can Mr. Barbaro do to facilitate a conversation between students and unemployment officers and/or unemployed individuals?
 * Learners:** High School Students
 * Environment:** Technology Labs and traditional classrooms with projection units

**Standards**: S.1.8 Identify, evaluate and use appropriate reference materials and technology to interpret information about cultural life in the United States and other world cultures, both in the past and today. (Geography, History) S.2.1 Define the key components of a culture, such as knowledge, language and communication, customs, values, norms, and physical objects. (Geography, History) S.5.4 Investigate stereotypes of the various United States subcultures, such as “American Indian,” “American cowboys,” “teenagers,” “Americans,” “gangs” and “hippies,” from a world perspective. (History) Every year Mr. Barbaro spends time discussing different cultures with his high school students. He has noticed that they are very superficial with their assessment of various cultures. He wants them to understand various cultures from a variety of perspectives and develop a a view point that appropriately reflects that of country which is a cultural melting pot that America is. He would like his students to be able to contact the various ethnic student groups across university campuses in the nation in order to develop a more balanced and informed understanding of the different cultures that exist side-by-side in America. How do you suggest Mr. Barabo accomplishes his goal?  =Production=
 * Learners**: High School Students
 * Environment**: Technology and Communication Lab


 * Standard**: High School World History: WH.2.7 Compare and contrast the daily life, social hierarchy, culture and institutions of Athens and Sparta; describe the rivalry between Athens and Sparta; and explain the causes and consequences of the Peloponnesian War. (Geography, Government, Sociology)
 * Learners**: High School Students
 * Environment**: Technology Lab and traditional classroom with projection unit

The **Peloponnesian War** (431 BC-404 BC) was a devastating military conflict in Ancient Greece fought between Athens and its empire and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. In the first, the Archidamian War, Sparta launched repeated invasions of Attica, while Athens took advantage of its naval supremacy to raid the coast of the Peloponnese while attempting to suppress signs of unrest in its empire. This period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was soon undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnesus. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously with the destruction of the entire force in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire and eventually depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year.

Ms. Chen's high school world history class has recently completed a unit on the Peloponnesian War. Ms. Chen wants to judge whether her high school students are able to represent the three phases of the Peloponnesian War as well as list the details of each phase. In addition, she also wants her students to be able to present the causes and the consequences of the war in tabular form. What resources do you suggest Ms. Chen uses?

=Data Analysis= WH.9.1 Identify patterns of historical change and duration and construct a representation that illustrates continuity and change.
 * Standard: Chronological Thinking, Analysis and Interpretation, Research, Issues-Analysis and **Decision-Making
 * Learners**: High School Students
 * Environement**: Technology Labs and traditional classroom with projection units

Ms. George teaches high school history with a focus ancient Asian civilization. Every semester, she has her class, as final project, track the progression of East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East along with the civilizations developing on the interior mass of the Eurasian Steppe. Ms George’s goal, in this final project is to highlight how in spite of having different cultures each of the civilizations had significant impact of each others development. In past, Ms. George would have the student collects all kinds of historical data to build their case such as maps, historical accounts, pictures of excavated relics, etc. Students would then use all this circumstantial evidence to prove or disprove if these civilizations did in fact have an effect on each other. But, there is one problem that Ms. George has been concerned about lately. Through the past few semesters, she has observed that students are not doing a thorough job collecting, examining, analyzing, and presenting the data that they have. In order to understand why it was so, Ms. George had her students fill out a survey. From the survey she discovered that even though the students had extensive date, they lacked organization of that data. Students apparently had been working from the beginning of the semester collecting all the information; however, when the time came to present it, most of them were unable to retrieve them because they were not organized efficiently. They were also unable to effectively analyze the vast amount of data that they had collected over the entire semester. What suggestions can you make for Ms. George that would help her address these issues?