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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 13 of 15

A Changing Population

Suburbs, the Sun Belt and new immigrants

What your child practices

The baby boom, suburbs such as Levittown, the Sun Belt and Rust Belt, migration from Puerto Rico, new immigration after 1965, and environmental challenges from Love Canal to climate change.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 8.8; 8.8a; 8.8b; 8.8c · population shifts after World War II, immigration and cultural diversity, and stress on the environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. After World War II, many families moved to suburbs, and many people moved to the Sun Belt in the South and West.
  2. As baby boomers retire, more people rely on Social Security and Medicare.
  3. Environmental problems, like toxic waste at Love Canal, led to action; the EPA was created in 1970 to protect air, water and land.

Example: Why was the Environmental Protection Agency created in 1970? Pollution was harming air, water and land. People wanted the government to act. The EPA protects the environment. Answer: to protect the nation’s air, water and land

A Changing Population in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 13 of 15 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Civil Rights and before The Great Society & Beyond.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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 first Earth Day was held in…

    • 1970
    • 1945
    • 2001
    • 1920

  2. Question 2

    The Interstate Highway Act of 1956…

    • ended car travel
    • created the subway
    • built the Erie Canal
    • built a national network of highways

  3. Question 3

    The Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1970 to…

    • build highways
    • run national parks only
    • protect the nation's air, water and land
    • plan wars

  4. Question 4

    As baby boomers retire, more people rely on…

    • the Homestead Act
    • the Marshall Plan
    • Social Security and Medicare
    • the GI Bill

  5. Question 5

    When many suburbs were first built, many Black families were…

    • paid to move there
    • kept out by discrimination in housing sales and lending
    • required to live there
    • the only families allowed in

  6. Question 6

    After the Love Canal disaster, Congress passed a law in 1980 known as…

    • the GI Bill
    • the Homestead Act
    • the Interstate Highway Act
    • the Superfund law, to clean up toxic waste sites

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