Social Science

Students learn to increase their analytical skills in reading and writing by examining past and present historical events.  Our teachers combine formative and summative assessments to help students achieve the high school standards and prepare them for college and career.

Peninsula High School Social Science Course Overviews:

Economics: This course will investigate the major concepts and foundations of Economics. The emphasis is on learning by doing with deeper investigations on economic behavior through reading and interacting with nonfiction texts. Project-based units of study will seek to uncover social science inquiries drawing upon our local communities and backgrounds.

Modern World History: This course involves interacting between the past and the present in an effort to help us understand who we are today. Students will examine how new ideas have led to the development of political and revolutionary change. We will also focus on world wars as well as modern conflicts. Lastly, we will explore how recent events affect the lives of people around the world and are closely connected to our past.

U.S. History: This course studies the development of the Unites States in the 20th and 21st centuries.

• How do presidents shape political visions? What does it mean for the U.S. to be on the grand world stage as international conflicts arise?
• How do issues of race, class, and gender come to a flashpoint during the 1960’s?

These are just some of the questions students will explore as they come to understand themselves and their relationship with the United States.

Ethnic Studies:  This course is designed for students to be politically, socially and economically conscious about their personal connections to local and global histories. It is intended to help build inter-ethnic understanding and socio-cultural bridges in an increasingly more multicultural and multiethnic nation, which is imperative to creating a just society. 

Modern World History: 

The Modern World History course covers a period of more than 250 years, highlighting major turning points that shaped the modern world, from the late eighteenth century through the present. This course offers a balanced approach to historical content, providing equal weight to the development of western civilization and the evolution of the non-western world. This course will offer students a truly global historical experience. In this course, students will critically learn about the history and culture of the world by considering multiple accounts of events in order to understand international relations from a variety of perspectives, in a way that allows students to place themselves in its narratives.