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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 8 of 10

The Cold War

Containment, Korea, Vietnam and the space race

What your child practices

The rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, containment from the Truman Doctrine to Vietnam, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the space race and the end of the Cold War, from more than one perspective.

Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards benchmark: 7.4.19.2; 7.4.21.3 · different perspectives on the Cold War, and technological change since the mid-20th century

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Cold War was a rivalry between the US (democracy, markets) and the Soviet Union (communism, one-party rule).
  2. Containment tried to stop communism’s spread: Korea, Vietnam and the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962).
  3. The space race reached the Moon in 1969. The Soviet Union broke apart in 1991.

Example: How did the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 end? The US found Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. After tense talks, the Soviets took them away. Answer: The Soviet Union removed its missiles from Cuba

The Cold War in Minnesota

In the Minnesota K-12 Academic Standards, this is unit 8 of 10 in 7th grade Social Studies, after World War II and before Civil Rights.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Minnesota Department of Education (MDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    The arms race was…

    • a contest to build cars
    • a race to build canals
    • the US and the Soviet Union building more and more nuclear weapons
    • a running contest at the Olympics

  2. Question 2

    Mikhail Gorbachev was…

    • a US president
    • a Soviet leader whose reforms helped end the Cold War
    • a German chancellor
    • a Cuban general

  3. Question 3

    Supercomputers built in Minnesota during the Cold War were used for…

    • science and defense calculations
    • farming only
    • baking bread
    • making movies

  4. Question 4

    Winston Churchill used the phrase "Iron Curtain" to describe…

    • the division between communist Eastern Europe and the West
    • a wall in New York City
    • a new kind of tank
    • a theater in London

  5. Question 5

    Minnesota's Hubert Humphrey served as vice president during the…

    • Vietnam War years
    • Revolutionary War
    • War of 1812
    • Civil War

  6. Question 6

    The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and fell in…

    • 1962
    • 2001
    • 1989
    • 1945

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