Social Studies Elective Courses

The African American Studies course is designed to develop an understanding of the causes, character, and consequences of the African American experience and its influence on the world, the United States, and the African American community, the courses will provide a descriptive and corrective overview which will introduce the student to the study of the African and American experiences.

This course is part of the Advanced Placement Program of the College Board which makes demands on students equivalent to those of an introductory college course. This rigorous course introduces students to cultural, economic, political, and social developments that played a fundamental role in shaping our world. Students are expected to demonstrate knowledge of the basic chronology, major events, movements, changes, and trends in Modern European history beginning with the Renaissance in the 1400s and ending with the creation of the European Union in the 1990s. This course stresses analytical thinking and writing skills, which are applied to document-based question essays, seminars, class discussions and/or debates. The Advanced Placement syllabus gives a complete course description.

This course is part of the Advanced Placement Program of the College Board which makes demands on students equivalent to those of an introductory level college course. AP Human Geography introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of the Earth’s surface. Students learn to employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human socioeconomic organization and its environmental consequences. On successful completion of the course, students should have developed skills that enable them to interpret maps and analyze geospatial data, understand, and explain the implications of associations and networks among phenomena in places, recognize and interpret the relationships among patterns and processes at different scales of analysis, define regions and evaluate regionalization process, and characterize and analyze changing interconnections among places. Geographic concepts emphasized through the course are location, space, place, scale, pattern, regionalization, and globalization. Topics covered will include nature and perspectives of geography; population and migration; cultural patterns and processes; political organization of space, agriculture, food production and land use; industrialization and economic development; cities and urban land use. The Advanced Placement syllabus gives a complete course description.

This course introduces students to the function of law in our society. It will include an overview of the American legal process, sources of laws, and the organization of both federal and state courts. Students will examine the litigation process, with comparisons between civil and criminal litigation. This course will include looking at and discussing constitutional protections, judicial policymaking, tort, contractual and constitutional law and criminal justice. Students will examine trial procedures and participate in class mock trials, simulations, and legal case studies.

This course will cover the histories of ancient civilizations through the 21st century in Latin America. Students will learn about Latin American cultures, their political and economic structures, and their impact on the globalized world through a variety of lenses. Though analysis of historical and current issues, students will gain a deeper understanding of Latin America and explore the ways in which the region’s history influences interactions and patterns across the globe.

This course is designed to train students to facilitate workshops for their peers that address diversity issues and promote tolerance and mutual respect. Students will develop awareness and understanding of (1) prejudice, discrimination, stereotyping, and (2) the means by which they can become more directly involved in the school and community.

The science of behavior is psychology. The purpose of the Advanced Placement Psychology course is to introduce students to the systematic and scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Major topics in the AP course include the following: I. methods, approaches, and history. II. biological bases of behavior. III. sensation and perception. IV. states of consciousness. V. learning. VI. cognition. VII. motivation and emotion. VIII. developmental psychology. IX. personality. X. testing and individual differences. XI. psychological disorders. XII. treatment of psychological disorders. XIII. social psychology.

Sociology is the scientific study of groups of people and their impact on our individual lives. Emphasis is placed on an understanding of the "social facts” in each person's life. From parents to schoolteachers to our peers, groups of people impact who we are, what we value and who we will become. In-depth attention is also given to societal problems such as racism, and poverty and crime. The essential goal of Sociology is to help the student better understand society's impact on the individual and one's role within that society.

This course starts by reviewing the role of the United States in world affairs through the history of American foreign policy. We will examine the role of the United States and the United Nations in various conflicts and discuss how foreign policy decisions and resolutions are made. Other topics covered include diplomacy, international relations, institutions and organizations, human rights, terrorism, genocide, global and regional conflicts and issues, and recent and current events.