8th grade Social Studies
9 units matched to the Alaska content standards.
Focus areas
- Exploration and the Columbian Exchange
- The American Revolution and the Constitution
- Reform, the Civil War and Reconstruction
Units
Unit 1
Exploration & Exchange
The great voyages, the ships and tools that made them possible, mapmaking, the Columbian Exchange and the rise of colonial empires and mercantilism.
Learning standard: SS.8.2.21.2; SS.8.2.17.1 · why Europeans explored, and the long-term effects of the Columbian Exchange
Unit 2
Founding Ideas
Ideas the Founders drew from Greece and Rome, the Enlightenment and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, why the Articles of Confederation failed, and the compromises and debates of the Constitution.
Learning standard: SS.8.4.21.3; SS.8.4.6.1 · Enlightenment ideas and the writing of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights
Unit 3
A New Nation
The first presidents and parties, judicial review, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, the War of 1812 and early foreign policy.
Learning standard: SS.8.4.23.1; SS.8.4.3.1 · the challenges the new United States faced and the people who shaped its first years
Unit 4
Rights & Amendments
What the first ten amendments protect, the Reconstruction Amendments, and why rights come with limits and responsibilities.
Learning standard: SS.8.4.6.1; SS.8.5.10.1 · the Bill of Rights and the rights and responsibilities of people in a democracy
Unit 5
Factories & Reformers
The Industrial Revolution in the North, canals, roads and railroads, immigration, public schools, and the abolition and women's rights movements before 1861.
Learning standard: SS.8.7.23.1; SS.8.7.23.3 · the reform movements of the 1800s and their effects
Unit 6
Reconstruction
Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877 as a bridge to high school US history: the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments, Black officeholders, the violence that opposed them and how gains were later rolled back.
Learning standard: SS.8.8.8.1; SS.8.8.22.2 · Reconstruction and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments
Unit 7
The Civil War
How the conflict over slavery led to secession and war, Lincoln's leadership, key events and people from Fort Sumter to Appomattox, and how enslaved people helped win their own freedom.
Learning standard: SS.8.7.4.1; SS.8.7.21.2; SS.8.7.22.1 · slavery and the sectional tensions behind the Civil War, and the war's key events
Unit 8
Sources & Evidence
Children practice choosing and judging sources, reading artifacts and art, comparing accounts and drawing conclusions from evidence.
Learning standard: SS.8.3.2.1; SS.8.8.2.1 · analyzing primary and secondary sources and different interpretations of events
Unit 9
Maps, Graphs & Data
Reading map scales and legends, choropleth maps, scatter graphs and correlation (and why correlation does not prove cause), and what population pyramids say about a country's age and growth. The data in the questions are made up for practice.
Learning standard: SS.8.1.16.3 · using maps, graphs and the five themes of geography
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