Recent Projects in Social Studies

It's been a fun month in Social Studies at the high school. In United States history, students were able to create projects on any topic they wanted from chapter 3 sections 1 and 2 in the textbook. Some of the topics covered were Andrew Jackson, Women's Rights, The Underground Railroad, and the Industrial Revolution. We saw all kinds of projects. Some groups made videos, some created stick figure animations, and others made mulitmedia presentations with pictures and music. One ambitious student even created an Underground Railroad video using the Xbox video game Halo.

In World History, students have been studying Ancient Greece and Alexander the Great. The students have been making graffiti notes, presentations with video and audio, composed Greek comedies and tragedies, and even held their own classroom olympics with medals awarded to the winners. Through these activities, the students learned about the Peloponnesian War, Alexander's Empire, Greek art, and the importance of athletic competitions in the lives of Greek citizens.

In World Geography, the students have been spending their time learning about the United States and Canada and the different cultures that make up these countries. Students made projects using the 5 themes of Geography. Some groups made gameshows based on the material, others made 3 dimensional maps, and some created videos. It was good to see the students take a variety of avenues to cover the material. This month, the students were also able to have a live conversation with Dr. Cook from Crown College. Dr. Cook is an anthropologist who has studied cultures for many years while living in the Philippines and teaching at Crown College. The students were able to ask Dr. Cook questions about how to stay objective while studying people different from themselves. Dr. Cook also spoke with the students about learning and maintaining a thirst for knowledge as they continue their education.

It has been an eventful month in Newell-Fonda Social Studies and November is shaping up to be just as exciting and educational.