MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCIAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT

Frequently Asked Topics 
on the NYS Intermediate-Level Social Studies Test

·        Example of primary sources

·        Adaptation to environment

·        Archeology

·        Contact between natives and Europeans (Columbian Exchange)

·        Iroquois Confederacy (League of Five Nations)

·        Migration (land bridge—Beringia)

·        Colonial Self-Government (e.g., Virginia House of Burgesses)

·        Reasons For American Revolution (Taxation Without Representation)

·        Triangle Trade

·        Declaration of Independence (purposes)

·        Articles of Confederation (weaknesses)

·        Constitution

o       Three-fifths compromise

o       Great Compromise

o       Checks and Balances

o       Bill of Rights--1st Amendment: Freedoms of Religion (see "Act of Toleration" for its foundation), Speech, Press (see "John Peter Zenger Trial" for its foundation), Assembly, and Petition

o       Separation of Powers

·        Supreme Court Cases

o       Marbury v. Madison

o       Dred Scott v. Sandford

o       Plessey v. Ferguson (separate but equal)

o       Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

·        Andrew Jackson

o       Trail of Tears

o       Spoils System

·        Mexican War (1846-1848)

·        Abolitionists / Underground Railroad

·        Differences between Union and Confederacy

·        Emancipation Proclamation

·        Growth of Big Business – post Civil War

·        Immigration (push and pull factors)

·        Goal of Muckrakers (Progressive Era)

·        Imperialism

o       Big Stick Policy

o       Spheres of Influence

o       Spanish American War / Yellow Journalism

·        Causes of World War I

·        Harlem Renaissance

·        Great Depression

o       Stock Market Crash (buying on margin)

o       New Deal (support and opposition)

o       New Deal (programs still in existence)

 ·        World War II

o       Pearl Harbor

o       Life on the home front

o       Internment of Japanese Americans

o       Holocaust

o       Nuremburg Trials

·        Cold War

o       Containment

o       Berlin Airlift

o       Marshall Plan

o       N.A.T.O.

o       Korean War

o       Cuban Missile Crisis

o       Vietnam War

·        Civil Rights Movement

o       Rosa Parks

o       Martin Luther King Jr.

o       Civil Disobedience

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