This paper suggests that emerging adolescents in middle schools will do better in social studies if activities are encouraged that develop and maintain student interest. Goal centered, interesting learning opportunities are a must in the social studies curriculum. Middle school students need ample opportunities to engage in problem solving. Lifelike problems chosen by middle school students with teacher guidance emphasize interests of learners in ongoing lessons and units. Questions that might be raised by students after appropriate readiness activities in a unit on the Middle East are provided. Activities that produce learning opportunities through projects done in committees are encouraged. These include: (1) problem solving research in which problems are delineated, data researched, hypotheses formed and tested; (2) construction endeavors in which committees of students create outline and then relief maps of Palestine, a model wall of Old Jerusalem, the Jewish Wailing Wall, Muslim Dome of the Rock, and Christian Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and (3) art activities in which committees work in shifts on producing a mural by using a variety of art media. Interest is a powerful psychological factor in stimulating pupils to learn. To achieve the broad goal of developing interest in teaching-learning situations, middle school students need to achieve meaning in subject matter studied, purposes or reasons for learning, and experience that provides for individual differences. (DK)