Using the news media as resource material in the classroom is an excellent and under-utilized way to bring the reality and diversity of external politics into the classroom. Using that external reality in combination with the internal reality of the schools as unique political communities can provide a more complete and realistic civic education.…

Considering that the lower ability student in the seventh and eighth grades faces problems of emotion, identity, and self-motivation, there is a need for a more activity-based, exploratory curriculum that gives students responsibility for their learning and living. An interdisciplinary local studies approach was adopted for this six-week unit…

Inquiry techniques are described in which students investigate geographic phenomena in microcosm. The objective of this strategy is to enable students to examine geographic concepts and generalizations on a level which they can easily understand. Specifically, strategies for investigating and analyzing self-contained buildings and planned…

Interesting and stimulating instruction in high school social studies may be achieved by using the community and its institutions as a laboratory for learning and by creating an on-going community resource inservice program. Effective ways to incorporate community resources in the curriculum include creating special sections on developing writing…