MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT
Essential Questions for All 11 Social Studies Units
Grades 7-8 Social Studies: United States and New York State History
Unit One: The Global Heritage of the American People Prior to 1500
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- How do historians research the past?
- What are primary and secondary sources?
- How do anthropology, economics, geography, political science, psychology, and sociology assist historians as they uncover the past, research the present and forecast the future?
- How do maps provide information about people, places, and physical and cultural environments?
- How does geography affect how and where people live?
- How did geographic factors affect political, social, and economic aspects of life in the Mayan, Aztec, and Incan cultures?
- What are the political, social, and economic characteristics of each North American culture?
- How did geography influence the development of each culture?
- How did the North American world perspective differ from that of the Europeans?
- How was the European worldview demonstrated in maps, artwork, and writing from the time?
- How can misconceptions lead to stereotyping?
- What were the major causes and effects of European exploration?
- How have the events of exploration and colonization been interpreted throughout history?
UNIT TWO: EUROPEAN EXPLORATION AND COLONIZATION OF THE AMERICAS
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- What are the political, economic, and social roots of colonial settlements in the Americas?
- What role did geography play in the settlement pattern?
- How did settlers adapt to the new environments?
- How did colonial life evolve?
- What kinds of political systems were created to provide order and justice?
- What kinds of economic systems were created to answer the three basic economic questions:
What goods and services shall be produced?
How shall they be produced?
For whom shall they be produced?
- What kinds of social systems were created to satisfy religious and cultural needs?
- What are the political, economic, and social causes of the American Revolution?
- How did public opinion evolve in regard to the movement for independence?
UNIT THREE: A NATION IS CREATED
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- How did colonial protests against Britain escalate?
- What specific British policies galvanized public opinion in the colonies?
- What political systems were established in the colonies?
- How did the American Revolution parallel the move toward self-government?
- What were the major documents of the independence movement and how were they produced?
- What was the military course of the Revolutionary War?
- What role did leadership, commitment, and luck play in the American victory over the British?
- What political, economic, and social issues brought people together against the British?
- How did the Revolution change people’s lives?
- How have these political, economic, and social changes been interpreted by different analysts?
- Was the American Revolution a “revolution” for all of the participants? Why or why not?
- What is a government?
UNIT FOUR: EXPERIMENTS IN GOVERNMENT
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- How did the first United States government operate under the Articles of Confederation?
- How did the New York State Constitution reflect the principles
embodied in the Declaration of Independence?
- How are the New York State Constitution and the United States Constitution alike?
How are they different?
- The Declaration of Independence ended the legality of colonial constitutions support majority rule but also protect the rights of the minority
- Why was a new constitution necessary?
- How does the Constitution embody the principles of the Declaration of Independence?
- How do federalism and separation of powers promote those principles in the Constitution?
- What political, economic, and social issues did the new nation confront under the Constitution?
- How did perspectives differ on the new nation’s viability under the Constitution?
UNIT FIVE: LIFE IN THE NEW NATION
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- What was Jacksonian democracy?
- How did Jackson’s policies affect the political, economic, and social life of the nation?
- How was Jackson viewed by different groups of people?
- How did social and economic life change as the United States began to move from an agrarian to an
industrial society?
- How did geographic factors contribute to this change?
- How do statistics support historians as they research an era?
- What political, social, and economic factors caused the Civil War?
- What were the conflicting perspectives on slavery?
- What kind of nation did the founding fathers create?
- What is to be done with the institution of slavery?
- Must sectionalism ultimately lead to disunion?
UNIT SIX: DIVISION AND REUNION
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- What was the course of the Civil War?
- What were its political, social, and economic
ramifications?
- What were the political, social, and economic effects of the Civil War?
- What happened to the South after the Civil War?
- What were the long-term economic, political, and social implications of Reconstruction?
- What are the causes and effects of scarcity?
- How did the United States respond to the three basic economic questions in the late 1800s?
- What goods and services shall be produced and in what quantities?
- How shall goods and services be produced?
- For whom shall goods and services be produced?
UNIT SEVEN: AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- Is there an American culture?
- How is cultural diversity both a benefit and a problem?
- How did massive immigration lead to new social patterns and conflicts?
- Why do some people view the same event differently?
- Why was the United States a magnet to so many people?
- What specific social, economic, and political problems needed reform in the late-19th century?
- How can an individual help to bring about change in society?
- What is the amendment process?
- How did the federal government help the reform movement through amendments and legislation?
Do these problems exist today?
To what extent?
- What were the causes and effects of United States involvement in foreign affairs at the turn of the 20th century?
- What were the domestic and foreign issues of this time period?
UNIT EIGHT: THE UNITED STATES AS AN INDEPENDENT NATION IN AN INCREASINGLY INTERDEPENDENT WORLD
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- What are the costs and benefits of neutrality and foreign intervention?
- How did the role of the United States in foreign affairs change at the turn of the century?
- What were the economic, political, and social changes of the 1920s?
- How was Prohibition an outgrowth of the earlier temperance movement?
- How did the role of government change from the 1920s to the 1930s?
UNIT NINE: THE UNITED STATES BETWEEN THE WARS
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- Why did the crash of the market affect those who did not own stock?
- How did the concept of checks and balances relate to the New Deal?
- How was New York a model for federal programs?
- What parts of the New Deal legislation are still in effect today?
- How did the Versailles Treaty lead to World War II?
- How could the use of the first atomic bomb be considered a turning point in United States history?
- Why is World War II considered a “total war” affecting all aspects of American life?
UNIT TEN: THE UNITED STATES ASSUMES WORLDWIDE
RESPONSIBILITIES
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:
- How and why did the leadership role of the United States differ after World War II and World War I?
- How and why did the United States help the nations of Europe after World War II?
- What was the Cold War? How was it different from previous wars?
- How were World War II and the Vietnam War different?
- How were the Vietnam War and the Gulf War different?
- How has our relationship with Latin America changed?
- How did the Cold War affect the lives of people in the United States?
- How did the United States deal with the assassination of one president and the resignation of another?
UNIT ELEVEN: THE CHANGING NATURE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FROM WORLD WAR II TO THE PRESENT
ESSENTIALQUESTIONS:
- How has the fall of communism changed the balance of power in the world?
- What will be the role of the United States in the 21st century?
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