Grade 8 Social Studies
10 units matched to the Alberta Curriculum.
Organizing ideas
- Historical Models of Societies is the Grade 8 focus
- 8.1 Japan: how Japan's land, values and history shaped it before and after the Tokugawa and Meiji periods
- 8.2 Renaissance Europe: how new ideas in art, learning and trade changed Europe
- 8.3 The Spanish and the Aztecs: what happened when the Spanish met the Mexica, who are living peoples with living cultures
Units
Unit 1
Japan: Land, Beliefs & Values
Japan's islands and mountains, its farming and fishing, and the Shinto, Buddhist and Confucian ideas that helped shape how people lived and what they valued.
Learning outcome: 8.1 · Japan's geography, and the beliefs and values (Shinto, Buddhism, Confucian ideas) that shaped its worldview
Unit 2
Tokugawa Japan & Isolation
How Japan was ruled by shoguns for about 250 years, how its class system worked, why the government limited contact with other countries, and what life in Edo was like.
Learning outcome: 8.1 · the Tokugawa shogunate, the feudal class system, and Japan's policy of isolation
Unit 3
From Isolation to Adaptation
How American ships arrived in 1853, how Japan opened to the world, and how the Meiji government built railways, schools and industry while keeping parts of its own culture.
Learning outcome: 8.1 · the end of isolation, the Meiji Restoration and how Japan adapted to new influences
Unit 4
Where the Renaissance Began
Why Italian city-states such as Florence became centres of wealth and learning, what patrons and humanists did, and how the Renaissance worldview differed from the Middle Ages.
Learning outcome: 8.2 · the origins of the Renaissance in Italy and the ideas of humanism and individualism
Unit 5
Renaissance Art, Printing & Science
Famous Renaissance artists and builders, how the printing press spread ideas, and how astronomers and scientists began to test old ideas with observation.
Learning outcome: 8.2 · Renaissance art and architecture, the printing press and the new scientific thinking
Unit 6
Renaissance & Reformation
The rebirth of art and learning in Italy, how the printing press spread ideas, the Reformation, and how questioning led to new science.
Learning outcome: 8.2 · the Renaissance, the Reformation and their effects on Europe
Unit 7
The Mexica & Tenochtitlan
How the Mexica built Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco, grew food on chinampas, traded and collected tribute, and how Nahua peoples and the Nahuatl language continue today.
Learning outcome: 8.3 · the Mexica (Aztec) society, the city of Tenochtitlan, farming, trade, tribute and government
Unit 8
Spain & the Age of Exploration
What motivated Spain's rulers and explorers (faith, wealth and glory), the technology they brought, and how plants, animals and diseases crossed the Atlantic in both directions.
Learning outcome: 8.3 · the Spanish worldview and motives for exploration, and the Columbian Exchange
Unit 9
Contact & Conquest in Mexico
How the Spanish and many Indigenous allies came into conflict with the Mexica between 1519 and 1521, why the outcome had several causes, and how Nahua peoples and culture continue today.
Learning outcome: 8.3 · the arrival of the Spanish, alliances, disease, the fall of Tenochtitlan, and the lasting effects of the conflict
Unit 10
Worldviews & Historical Sources
What a worldview is, how to tell primary from secondary sources, and how to read a source for point of view. Applies to all three Grade 8 case studies: Japan, Renaissance Europe and the Spanish and Mexica.
Learning outcome: 8.1; 8.2; 8.3 · comparing worldviews and perspectives, adaptation and isolation, and using primary and secondary sources
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