New Colorado P-12 Academic Standards

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Develop an understanding of how people view, construct, and interpret history

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Change and sequence over time

Inquiry Questions:

1. How have you grown and changed over time?
2. What are important events in your past, your families past, or the past of an adult you know?

Relevance & Application:

1. Change occurs over time and has an impact on individuals and society.
2. Sequence and sequencing helps with understanding, such as the sequence of equations in mathematics.
3. Technology is used to record change and sequence. For example, clocks, calendars, and timelines record change.

Nature Of:

1. Historical thinkers study and describe past events and change over time in the lives of people.
2. Historical thinkers organize past events using chronology.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Develop spatial understanding, perspectives, and personal connections to the world

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Develop spatial understanding, perspectives, and connections to the world

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do you describe your surroundings?
2. Where is this place located?
3. What would the playground look like if it were organized in a different way?
4. What is a geographical term?
5. What is the importance of location?

Relevance & Application:

1. Specific vocabulary describes space and locations such as the book are under the table, and the pencil is next to the telephone.
2. Words can describe surroundings. For example, the dentist is inside her office; the firefighter is on the truck; and the puppy is inside the doghouse.
3. Knowledge about location through personal experience integrates geographic terms with spatial thinking.
4. Individuals perform different activities in different places. For example, cooking is done in the kitchen, hiking in the mountains, walking the dog in the park, learning in school, and working in a store.

Nature Of:

1. Spatial thinkers investigate other cultures and how they have been influenced by climate, physical geography, and other cultures in an area.
2. Spatial thinkers understand that space is organized, have personal experiences with their environment, and look for patterns.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Understand the allocation of scarce resources in societies through analysis of individual choice, market interaction, and public policy

Concepts and skills students master:

1. People work to meet wants and needs

Inquiry Questions:

1. What might happen if no one worked?
2. What do we buy and why?
3. How do people use income?
4. Why do you save income?

Relevance & Application:

1. Working enables people to meet wants. For example, a parent works to receive income used to purchase items such as food, cars and vacations.

Nature Of:

1. Economic thinkers analyze the connection between working and earning income.
2. Economic thinkers recognize that people use income to meet needs and wants.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Acquire the knowledge and economic reasoning skills to make sound financial decisions (PFL)

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Recognize money and identify its purpose (PFL)

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why do people use money?
2. What are the different forms of money?

Relevance & Application:

1. Recognition of units of money aids in making purchases. For example, a parent pays for an item using correct change.
2. Knowledge of coins and currency ensures accurate transactions. For example, you can check that a cashier gave you the right amount of change.
3. Money is a medium of exchange.

Nature Of:

1. Financially responsible individuals use money wisely.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Analyze and practice rights, roles, and responsibilities of citizens

Concepts and skills students master:

1. Individuals have unique talents and work with others in groups

Inquiry Questions:

1. What makes an individual unique?
2. Why would a person want to belong to a group?
3. How can differences among group members make groups better?

Relevance & Application:

1. People join groups based on similar interests and talents such as dance groups, Boy Scouts, or play groups
2. Groups have common purposes such as cleaning up a street, helping students learn, or playing a sport.
3. There are different roles in groups including leaders and team members.

Nature Of:

1. Responsible community members know the roles of individuals vary by the purpose of the group.
2. Responsible community members identify qualities of leadership and effective action.

Prepared Graduates: (Click on a Prepared Graduate Competency to View Articulated Expectations)

• Analyze origins, structure, and functions of governments and their impacts on societies and citizens

Concepts and skills students master:

2. Rules and their purpose in allowing groups to work effectively

Inquiry Questions:

1. What happens when people do not work cooperatively?
2. What personal boundaries are common?
3. What happens if there are no rules?

Relevance & Application:

1. Actions affect us and others. For example, fighting may result in injury and punishment.
2. Rules are different in different settings. For example, school rules may be different from home rules.
3. Situations may be fairer because of rules such as taking turns on playground equipment.

Nature Of:

1. Responsible community members identify the effects of rules on individuals and groups.
2. Responsible community members investigate the causes of inequities that exist within and among groups.
3. Responsible community members study the tension between preserving security, and order and liberty.