This inquiry leads students through an investigation of questions around Indigenous People’s land rights. Focusing on the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), students explore how disputes over treaties and historical land bases complicate the already contentious issue of resource extraction. Students are progressively introduced to land rights issues centering on the experiences of Indigenous People.
Tier 1
The Heart of Social Studies
Inquiries
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This inquiry leads students through an investigation of questions around Indigenous People’s land rights. Focusing on the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), students explore how disputes over treaties and historical land bases complicate the already contentious issue of resource extraction. Students are progressively introduced to land rights issues centering on the experiences of…
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In this inquiry, students investigate police and policing reform in historical and modern contexts. Framed by the compelling questionㄧHow should we reform policing?ㄧstudents explore the form and function of policing in order to evaluate reforms and create their own reform policy proposal. First, students examine the purpose of policing, considering the role police play in…
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This inquiry leads students through an investigation of what parks do for us and where they may fall short. The compelling question asks something we may not have thought much about. “Should parks make us better people?” For Fredrick Law Olmsted, the father of the American public park, the answer was very clear. Parks restore…
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Students investigate the compelling question, “How Did Cotton Sow the Seeds of Panic?” Students identify the market forces of demand and supply during the boom and bust of the cotton industry in the United States during the time surrounding the Panic of 1837. They learn how economic and political forces impacted the treatment of enslaved…
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This inquiry leads students through an investigation that explores the struggle for equality through social justice movements. Specifically, students explore the tension between the assumption that “all [people] are created equal,” a guiding principle from the Declaration of Independence, and the reality of legal and social structures that do not treat all people equally. By…
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This inquiry asks students to explore issues of individual responsibility and moral choice by investigating the compelling question, “I was only following orders! Is this an acceptable defense?” Students will consider Dr. Solis’s question about actions taken during the Holocaust and more as they study the history of the “superior orders” defense from its first…
This inquiry leads students through an investigation of how they can make an impact on their community. By investigating the compelling question, students examine an issue that is important to them, assess what can be done to help with the issue, plan ways they can take action on their issue, and evaluate potential challenges. By…
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This inquiry leads students through an investigation of Sikhism and the challenges and opportunities the Sikh community has faced over time. By investigating the compelling question “How do religious communities respond to challenges and opportunities?” students evaluate how the Sikh community has responded to different social, historical, and political changes as members immigrated and integrated…
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This third-grade inquiry expands students’ understandings of how groups represent themselves through what they wear. The compelling question—“What do things I wear say about me?”—engages students in an examination of material culture by considering the factors impacting their own choices of what they wear such as geography, culture, and religion. Students will examine the similarities…
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The compelling question for this inquiry calls on students to conduct an inquiry in the tradition of social history, where students are examining the activities of people who are sometimes overlooked in social studies. The question of how people responded to Pearl Harbor is not as simple as it may seem at first. Students will…