Before Heritage Middle School began working with the Participate Learning team to connect lessons to real-world issues, the teachers and leadership had established a goal to encourage students to become more empathic about issues in their community. Although a handful of students and teachers who participated in the school's gardening club were…

The study of current events can take several forms, and the right current event to study as a class depends on the educational purposes, the curricular standards the authors want to address, and the resources they have available to meet them, and what the needs and abilities are of the students present in the class. In this article, they focus on…

This study investigates the Jewish history engagement for middle school students "playing" in the Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT), an online simulation of a current events court case with historical roots (http://jcat.icsmich.org). Through an online platform across several schools, students research and play historical and current…

In the early 1980s, it was not sub-prime mortgages and toxic assets, bank failures and factory closures that crowded the pages of the business section of the daily newspapers. It was something called "stagflation," a noxious combination of inflationary pressures on currency and stagnating levels of production. Still, the effects were…

Planetary life support systems are at risk, and clean air, unpolluted water, and arable land are increasingly scarce. Environmental problems such as ozone depletion and the threat of global warming transcend national boundaries and confront our species with fundamental questions about survival, quality of life, and responsibility to future…

These lesson plans are designed to help fifth- through eighth-grade students learn about recycling, and to help them understand that recycling is one important environmental action citizens can take. The lesson plans are composed of objectives, homework assignments, main activities, and enrichment activities. (DB)

Presents a teacher's report on personal reactions and attitudes of both German students and teachers toward German reunification. Information was obtained through interviews during a week stay in Germany in March 1990. Includes many quotes expressing fear of nationalism and hope for the future, and recognizing social and economic problems Germany…

This paper examines the rapid changes in technology that enables cloning of human embryos and explores the issues related to teaching students about the use of such technologies. STS adoption has made only minimal impact on mainline social studies curriculum, although the topic has been included in discussion for decades. The paper outlines five…

Efforts to contain the spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) have been slowed by numerous arguing factions, political, religious, and medical, all of which perceive the AIDS epidemic through a different set of symbols. The images can be more easily understood using Kenneth Boulding's Threat, Integry, and Exchange (or TIE) model. The…

This is one unit of the series described in SO 000 378. The essential ingredients are not the problems of American society themselves but the ability to recognize them, to view these problems in historical perspective, to mitigate or bring out effective change, to assign priorities, to investigate satisfactory problem-solving methods, and above…

This study examines the effects of school contexts, individual differences, and motivational goals and benefits on current events knowledge. A review of the literature focuses on motivation study of goal theory and self-efficacy. The sample includes 798 students from nine high schools (grades 9-12) in diverse geographical locations and of various…