Social Studies 8

Grade: 8
Subject Area/Course Credit: Social Studies, 1 credit
Prerequisite: None

Social Studies at ZIS is a concept-driven, skills-oriented program that empowers students to explore how people, ideas, and environments shape our world. Across history, geography, civics, and economics, students examine human behaviour, cultural interactions, systems of power, and global challenges.

Students develop critical literacy, analytical thinking, and research skills by engaging with diverse sources, including maps, artifacts, documents, data, and media. Learning emphasizes questioning, collaboration, authentic inquiry, reflection, and student choice, with opportunities to connect learning to real-world issues. Assessment prioritizes reflection, growth, and agency, using varied formats, conferencing, and goal-setting. Classrooms foster resilience, risk-taking, and civil discourse.

In Social Studies 8, students investigate global conflict and its implications, technological and social change, systems of government and diplomacy, human rights, and future building. They analyze cause and effect, change over time, and relationships among leadership, society, and technology. Reflection on beliefs, values, and civic identity is integrated into the learning process. Assessments focus on authentic performance, creative expression, and personal voice, allowing students to demonstrate their learning in meaningful ways.