Social Science

This course introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human socioeconomic organization and its environmental consequences.  They also learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their research and applications.

Credit: 10.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 9

A-G College Requirement: A

This one-year tenth grade course is designed to reinforce the California State Standards for K-12 History/ Social Studies. Students in grade ten study major turning points that shaped the modern world, from the late 18th century through the present. They trace the rise of democratic ideas and develop an understanding of the historical foundation of current world issues, especially as they relate to international relations. Students develop an understanding of current world issues and relate them to their historical, geographic, political, economic, and cultural context.

Credit: 10.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 10

A-G College Requirement: A

The Advanced Placement World History course is to be equivalent to a college course. The Advanced Placement World History course is designed to comprehensively cover World History from approximately 1000 to the present. In addition, a Foundations section on previous developments begins the course. Advanced Placement World History highlights six overarching themes that receive approximately equal attention throughout the course. The following themes make up the course content: 1. Impact of interaction among major societies (trade, systems of international exchange, war, and diplomacy). 2. The relationship of change and continuity across the world history periods covered in this course. 3. Impact of technology and demography on people and the environment (population growth and decline, disease, manufacturing, migrations, agriculture, weaponry). 4. Systems of social structure and gender structure (comparing major features within and among societies and assessing change). 5. Cultural and intellectual developments and interactions among and within societies. 6. Changes in functions and structures of states and in attitudes toward states and political identities (political culture), including the emergence of the nation-state (types of political organization).

Credit: 10.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 10

A-G College Requirement: A

This one-year 11th grade course is designed to reinforce the California State Standards for K-12 History/Social Science. The course covers the major turning points in American history in the twentieth century. Following a review of the nation's beginnings and the impact of the Enlightenment on U.S. democratic ideals, the student will do the following throughout this course: 1. Build upon the tenth grade study of global industrialization to understand the emergence and impact of new technologies and the American corporate economy, including the social and cultural effects they have on the American people. 2. Trace the change in the ethnic composition of American society; the movement toward equal rights for racial minorities and women; and the role of the United States as a major world power. 3. Understand the emphasis on the expanding role of the federal government and federal courts as well as the continuing tension between the individual and the state. 4. Consider the major social problems of our time and trace their causes in historical events. 5. Learn that the United States has served as a model for other nations and that the rights and freedoms we enjoy are not accidents, but the results of a defined set of political principles that are not always basic to citizens of other countries. 6. Understand that our rights under the U.S. Constitution are a precious inheritance that depends on an educated citizenry for their preservation and protection.

Credit: 10.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 11

A-G College Requirement: A

This full year course is designed to provide students with the analytic skills and factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in American history. The program prepares students for intermediate and advanced college courses by making demands upon them equivalent to those made by full-year introductory college courses. Students should learn to assess historical materials their relevance to a given interpretive problem, their reliability, and their importance and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in historical scholarship. This course will thus develop the skills necessary to arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence clearly and persuasively in essay format.

Credit: 10.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 11

A-G College Requirement: A

The course in American Government is a one-semester class in the principles and fundamental values of American Democracy. The class is guided by the California State Content Standards for American Government and the Historical and Social Science Analysis Skills outlined in the California Framework. Students will be engaged in historical research, persuasive writing, current event applications, evaluation of evidence and issues, and synthesis of information. The course in American government provides a roadmap to adult civic participation. Students should come away from the semester with a firm understanding of the structure and functions of government. This course will directly impact each and every students' ability to interpret the world around them and make wise choices. Some of the topics covered in the course include the Constitutional framework, the rights and responsibilities as citizens, civil society, the three branches of government, the issues regarding elections an campaigns, federalism, the media, and the scope of political systems.

Credit: 5.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 12

A-G College Requirement: A

This one-semester twelfth grade course is designed to reinforce the California State Standards for K-12 History/ Social Studies. Students in grade twelve master fundamental economic concepts, applying mathematics tools from other subject areas to the understanding of operations and institutions of economic systems. Students master basic economic principles of micro and macroeconomics, international economics, and comparative economic systems.

Credit: 5.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 12

A-G College Requirement: G

The one-semester Advanced Placement Program in American Government and Politics is designed to complement the one-semester course in Comparative Government and Politics. Either program will qualify students for its equivalent, a one-semester college introductory course. This course is designed to give students an analytical perspective on government and politics in the United States through both the study of general concepts used to interpret U.S. politics and the analysis of specific case studies. It also requires familiarity with the various institutions, groups, beliefs, and ideas that make up U. S. political reality. The acquisition of a thorough and systematic comprehension of United States government and politics requires that the student learn facts and concepts and understand typical political processes. Further, the student learns to use specific information critically to evaluate general propositions about government and politics. This course will thus develop the skills required to evaluate and compare scholarly works and approaches, to make cogent arguments, and to synthesize social science data.

Credit: 5.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 12

A-G College Requirement: A

The purpose of the AP course in macroeconomics is to give students a thorough understanding of the principles of economics that apply to an economic system as a whole. The course places particular emphasis on the study of national income and price-level determination, and also develops students’ familiarity with economic performance measures, the financial sector, stabilization policies, economic growth, and international economics. 

Credit: 5.00

Graduation Requirement: Social Science 12

A-G College Requirement: G

The first semester of this course will provide a survey of topics in psychology; topics include psychology as a science, physiological foundations of behavior, states of consciousness, cognitive processes, personality, psychological health and behavior in the social context. The second semester examines topics germane to the science of group behavior from different theoretical perspectives. Topics include sociology as a science; culture: social inequality: the social institutions of family, education, religion and government; and social change.

Credit: 10.00 | Graduation Requirement: Elective | A-G College Requirement: G

This one-year course will examine in great depth topics in psychology; topics include research techniques and statistics, history of psychology, the neurobiological basis of behavior, sensation and perception, states of consciousness, learning and memory, thinking and language, intelligence and psychological tests, motivation and emotion, stress and health psychology, human development, psychological disorders and therapies, personality, and social

psychology.

Credit: 10.00 | Graduation Requirement: Elective | A-G College Requirement: G