Social studies
Integral to understanding the world around you is knowledge of culture, place, and historical context. The scope and sequence of our social studies program embraces and extends this idea so that students leave Headwaters with a strong foundation to understand their world, its culture, and history
6th Grade - World Cultures - Maria Munro-Schuster
Anyone who has ever traveled away from their home, even if it is just to the neighborhood park, knows that the only way to get to know a place well is to experience it with all of your senses. By immersing ourselves in a place, a culture, we are allowed to engage and learn about it in a way that creates memorable learning experiences. On the contrary, learning about world cultures through text books alone, which cannot engage all of the senses, can be a difficult task. How can we remember a place, really remember it, if we have no significant memories attached to it? Can we attach memories to places we have never been or people we have never met? In 6th grade World Cultures, we will tackle these questions by encountering two major cultural regions—India and China—with an awareness of how we learn about other cultures. To do this, we will have to examine our own perspective, our own culture, to know why we see and learn about the world in the way we do. In this course, we will compare and contrast each region’s past and current culture to our own.
7th Grade - World Geography - Sayer Wickham
With continual advances in technology, people and events throughout the world increasingly affect our lives. To be ready to face the challenges of the future, students need to acquire a solid understanding of the Earth from different perspectives. In this class, we will look at the Earth using five geographic themes: location, place, human interaction with the environment, movement, and regions. Our goal is to appreciate the interrelationships between these themes. Diverse topics such as climate, natural resources, political systems, topography, culture, and history have all combined to create the world we live in today.
8th Grade - US History - Faye McDonough
US History begins with the prehistory of North America through the birth and evolution of our country. The purpose, structure, and function of the government, as well as the role of its citizens in a democracy come to life as students discover what it means to be a true leader and learn to have their own historical perspective. Particular attention is given to major and recurrent themes in American history as well as the foundation of modern culture. Students explore the history of their country through primary documents, literature, art, as well as research, projects, games, social media, and storytelling.
Anyone who has ever traveled away from their home, even if it is just to the neighborhood park, knows that the only way to get to know a place well is to experience it with all of your senses. By immersing ourselves in a place, a culture, we are allowed to engage and learn about it in a way that creates memorable learning experiences. On the contrary, learning about world cultures through text books alone, which cannot engage all of the senses, can be a difficult task. How can we remember a place, really remember it, if we have no significant memories attached to it? Can we attach memories to places we have never been or people we have never met? In 6th grade World Cultures, we will tackle these questions by encountering two major cultural regions—India and China—with an awareness of how we learn about other cultures. To do this, we will have to examine our own perspective, our own culture, to know why we see and learn about the world in the way we do. In this course, we will compare and contrast each region’s past and current culture to our own.
7th Grade - World Geography - Sayer Wickham
With continual advances in technology, people and events throughout the world increasingly affect our lives. To be ready to face the challenges of the future, students need to acquire a solid understanding of the Earth from different perspectives. In this class, we will look at the Earth using five geographic themes: location, place, human interaction with the environment, movement, and regions. Our goal is to appreciate the interrelationships between these themes. Diverse topics such as climate, natural resources, political systems, topography, culture, and history have all combined to create the world we live in today.
8th Grade - US History - Faye McDonough
US History begins with the prehistory of North America through the birth and evolution of our country. The purpose, structure, and function of the government, as well as the role of its citizens in a democracy come to life as students discover what it means to be a true leader and learn to have their own historical perspective. Particular attention is given to major and recurrent themes in American history as well as the foundation of modern culture. Students explore the history of their country through primary documents, literature, art, as well as research, projects, games, social media, and storytelling.
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