TechQuest: Educational Oppportunity

Social studies is a subject that comes with a stigma. People believe that all social studies is, is the memorization of facts. Memorizing people's names, dates, places, and outcomes. I strongly disagree with this belief. Social studies isn't about memorizing facts, it is about learning why something in our past happened and how it affects us today. For most students lessons learned in a social studies classroom are so abstract and often say, "Why do we have to know this". The key to making social studies a subject of importance is connecting key concepts to the "real" world, in other words making these concepts more concrete.

Social studies consists of four subjects; economics, political science, geography, and history. All of these subjects need real world applications in order to make a significant impact in learning. I'm not suggesting that every lesson every day needs a connection to the present, however, connecting key concepts would give more of an impact to those everyday lessons. For example, students in high school learn about the Great Depression. If there were a way to connect that concept with today's economic crisis, students could have a better understanding of what it might have meant to be unemployed in the 1920's. In civics students learn about U.S. foreign policy. This can be a very difficult concept for students to understand. However, if we could connect this classroom lesson to what is happening now in Haiti, students might have a better comprehension of this very difficult subject.

People might suggest looking at newspapers, journals, and news stations for making connections. These resources are all great for information but they aren't student engaging. Students generally don't want to read articles or watch CNN; they would prefer an activity in which they can interact. Activities that can grab their interest and create a learning environment would be better suited for the classroom. Now we have to explore our options. What can be done? I will attempt to discover new and engaging ways to make connections from the world to the classroom.