Colorado Academic Standards Online

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to research historical questions. (Strategic Learning: Critical Thinking and Problem Solving)
2. Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives while using inquiry and primary sources. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
3. Examine various resources, to look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)
4. Utilize primary and secondary sources to examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills: Information Literacy)

Inquiry Questions:

1. What questions help us understand the development of the Western Hemisphere and the interactions of people in the region?
2. Why do sources on the same topic vary, and how do we determine which ones will help us effectively interpret the past?
3. What key primary sources help us to understand the Western Hemisphere?
4. How is the bias of the author of a source reflected in the source itself?

Nature and Skills of History:

1. Historical thinkers evaluate historical sources for purpose, audience, point of view, context, reliability, and authenticity.
2. Historical thinkers use primary and secondary sources to develop and evaluate hypotheses and interpretations of historical events and figures that are supported by evidence.
3. Historical thinkers identify points of view, seek multiple sources, and develop and defend a thesis with evidence.
4. Historical thinkers use technology to explore and evaluate for accuracy of information.
5. Historical thinkers use context and content from the past is used to make connections to the present.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources
2. Conduct research by locating, gathering, organizing information and data, and evaluating online and print resources.
3. Evaluate information critically and competently.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to research historical questions. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)
2. Engage in novel approaches, moves, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives while using inquiry and primary sources. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
3. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Western Hemisphere using multiple disciplinary perspectives such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
4. Examine various resources, to look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)

Inquiry Questions:

1. Why have civilizations succeeded and failed?
2. To what extent does globalization depend on a society's resistance to and adaptation to change over time?
3. What factors influenced the development of civilizations and nations in the Western Hemisphere?

Nature and Skills of History:

1. Historical thinkers analyze patterns and themes across time.
2. Historical thinkers study the people, places, ideas, and events in the Western Hemisphere to construct the story of history from multiple perspectives.
3. Historical thinkers use chronology to organize time.
4. Historical thinkers examine, interpret, and evaluate data for point of view, historical context, or propaganda and use it to inform decisions on the current world today.
5. Historical thinkers investigate how philosophies and ideas from the Aztec, Maya, Inca, and others in history continue to inform and affect the present.
6. Historical thinkers research how technological developments continue to evolve and affect the present.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
2. Identify propaganda, censorship, and bias in the media.
3. Demonstrate positive social and ethical behaviors when using technology and discuss consequences of inappropriate use.
4. Cite textual evidence from content-specific texts to demonstrate understanding and support an analysis of the text, conduct an experiment, or perform a task.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills: Initiative/Self-Direction)
2. Engage in novel approaches, directions, ideas, and/or perspectives while using inquiry and primary sources. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Creativity/Innovation)
3. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges, within the Western Hemisphere, which are appropriate to their contexts using multiple disciplinary perspectives, such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
4. Using geographic tools and resources, demonstrate task management attributes associated with producing high quality products including the abilities to: (a) Work positively and ethically; (b) Manage time and projects effectively; (c) Multi-task, and; (d) Clearly communicate with others. (Professional Skills: Task/Time Management).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How can geographic tools be used to solve problems in the future?
2. Why does where we live influence how we live?
3. How do populations, physical features, resources, and perceptions of places and regions change over time?
4. How have geographic factors influenced human settlement, economic activity, and land acquisition?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Spatial thinkers use geographic tools to develop spatial thinking and awareness skills.
2. Spatial thinkers use geographic tools to help to solve problems in daily life. For example: a car GPS is used to find a location, maps are used by tourists, and directions are found on the internet.
3. Geographic thinkers evaluate patterns that connect people in the Western Hemisphere to the rest of the world.
4. Geographic thinkers explore how technology is used by individuals and businesses to answer geographic problems such as the spread of disease, migration patterns, and distribution and loss of resources like water supplies.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Integrate visual information such as charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps, with other information in print and digital texts.
2. Explain and justify decisions and shared content through the use of online maps, graphs, charts, data and diagrams.
3. Manage the flow of information from a wide variety of sources.
4. Present arguments or information in a logical sequence with a clear claim, supportive evidence, and effective presence that builds credibility.
5. Generate questions to guide research, gather information from print and digital sources, determine biases and credibility of sources, cite sources accurately, and use evidence to answer their research question

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others in the Western Hemisphere. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)
2. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges within the Western Hemisphere which are appropriate to their contexts using multiple disciplinary perspectives such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
3. Apply knowledge to set goals, make informed decisions and transfer to new contexts. (Personal Skills: Initiative/Self-Direction)

Inquiry Questions:

1. What are different ways to define the Western Hemisphere based on human and physical systems?
2. How have people interacted with the environment over time in a positive or negative way?
3. How has globalization affected people and places?
4. In what ways are places on Earth interdependent?

Nature and Skills of Geography:

1. Geographic thinkers examine places and regions and the connections among them.
2. Geographic thinkers study how human and physical systems vary and interact to make better choices, decisions, and predictions. For example: resource distribution or trade is based on geographic features and environmental changes which affect business decisions.
3. Geographic thinkers analyze data regarding physical and human systems to make informed choices regarding production, trade, and resource acquisition.
4. Geographic thinkers use geographic information about human and physical systems to make decisions such as establishing trade routes, locating cities, trade centers and capitals, and establishing outposts and security systems like forts and walls.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text.
2. Demonstrate positive social and ethical behaviors when using technology and discuss consequences of inappropriate use.
3. Use information accurately and creatively for the issue or problem at hand.
4. Analyze different texts (including experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia texts) to compare and contrast competing theories, points of view, and arguments in the discipline.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global economic system challenges that are appropriate to their contexts using multiple disciplinary perspectives such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
2. Look for and find value in different economic perspectives expressed by others in the Western Hemisphere. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)
3. Make connections between information gathered and personal experiences to research economic questions. (Entrepreneurial Skills: Critical Thinking/Problem Solving)

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do different systems address the production of goods?
2. How are scarce resources distributed in different types of economic systems?
3. How do different economies control the means of production and distribution of goods and services?

Nature and Skills of Economics:

1. Economic thinkers study how and why individuals make decisions about purchases and in different locations.
2. Economic thinkers study the effects of different types of economies on global interdependence.
3. Economic thinkers explore how economic development varies and can be compared across countries in the Western Hemisphere including levels of education and average income.
4. Economic thinkers investigate how governments and the private sector cooperate to distribute goods and services, specialize, and are interdependent in the global economy.
5. Economic thinkers explain how career opportunities are influenced by the type of economic system.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Support claim(s) with clear reasons and relevant evidence, using credible sources and demonstrating an understanding of the topic or text.
2. Read to identify cause-and-effect relationships, compare and contrast information, fact vs. opinion, and author bias.
3. Use content-specific technology tools to support learning and research.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of cause and effect related to personal financial decisions. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Character)
2. Identify and explain multiple perspectives (cultural and global) when exploring economic events, ideas, and issues within the Western Hemisphere. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
3. Assess personal strengths and limitations with a well-grounded sense of confidence, optimism, and a growth mindset. (Personal Skills: Self-Awareness).

Inquiry Questions:

1. How did different societies in the Western Hemisphere define the roles of buyers and sellers in the various markets?
2. What role did the distribution of resources play in personal financial decisions?
3. What role has competition and wages played in different cultures?
4. Why is it important to analyze the various levels of a culture before understanding how individuals in that culture would make financial decisions?

Nature and Skills of Economics:

1. Financially capable individuals determine how history, location, and the distribution of resources have impacted financial decisions.
2. Financially capable individuals understand that competition and wages are not just American concepts. These concepts have applied to individual financial decisions long before the birth of the nation.
3. Financially capable individuals understand that populations within various cultures have made individual financial decisions differently throughout time and location.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop.
2. Explain how a question represents key ideas in the field.
3. Explain points of agreement experts have about interpretations and applications of disciplinary concepts and ideas associated with a compelling question
4. Integrate multimedia as effective tools for presenting and clarifying information.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Examine how individuals in the Western Hemisphere interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills: Information Literacy)
2. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges, in the Western Hemisphere, which are appropriate to their contexts, using multiple disciplinary perspectives such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness).
3. Look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others in the Western Hemisphere. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility).

Inquiry Questions:

1. What does it mean to live in an interconnected world?
2. How can you be a productive member of the global community and a contributing citizen of the United States?
3. Why are there greater challenges and opportunities when multiple groups interact?
4. Why do national and global viewpoints sometimes differ?

Nature and Skills of Civics:

1. Civic-minded individuals discuss and analyze how various government decisions impact people, places, and history.
2. Civic-minded individuals analyze how the actions of individuals and groups can have a local, national, and international impact.
3. Civic-minded individuals analyze the relationship between rights and responsibility in national and global contexts.
4. Civic-minded individuals explain how nations are interconnected and affect each other on a daily basis. For example: businesses are affected by the laws, regulations, nations; and markets are damaged by drought, earthquakes and other natural disasters throughout the world.
5. Civic-minded individuals demonstrate how technology provides daily information regarding the interaction between the United States government and other nations.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Describe how a text presents information (e.g., sequentially, comparatively, and causally).
2. Communicate and present information orally, in writing, and through the development of multimedia presentations, and other forms of technology in an effective manner.

Colorado Essential Skills:

1. Examine how individuals interpret messages differently, how values and points of view are included or excluded, and how media can influence beliefs and behaviors. (Professional Skills: Information Literacy)
2. Plan and evaluate complex solutions to global challenges, in the Western Hemisphere, which are appropriate to their contexts, using multiple disciplinary perspectives such as cultural, historical, and scientific. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Global/Cultural Awareness)
3. Look for and find value in different perspectives expressed by others in the Western Hemisphere. (Personal Skills: Adaptability/Flexibility)
4. Apply ethical perspectives/concepts to an ethical question/situation/scenario. (Civic/Interpersonal Skills: Character)

Inquiry Questions:

1. How do you define good government?
2. What evidence can you find of effective and ineffective governments in the past and the present?
3. What would a government look like if you created it?
4. What are the consequences if a government does not provide for the common good?

Nature and Skills of Civics:

1. Civic-minded individuals discuss and evaluate how personal and national actions have global consequences.
2. Civic-minded individuals identify ways in which lives are enriched and challenged because of the interconnected nature of a global society.
3. Civic-minded individuals demonstrate how different forms of government affect daily life. For example: employees work in international corporations and tourists visit countries with different laws, rules, and regulations.
4. Civic-minded individuals share how civic education is essential for understanding the implications of events around the world.

Disciplinary, Information, and Media Literacy:

1. Identify key steps in a text's description of a process related to history/social studies.
2. Evaluate the accuracy, relevance, appropriateness, and bias of online and print sources.
3. Synthesize information from multiple sources to demonstrate understanding of a topic.