Through dialogue, documentation, research, and interviews, students understand their role in society. This unit provides a background to students' family histories, and gives them an opportunity to listen to the voices of immigrants of the past. The students identify the issues involved with the migration of a community or family. By examining the traditional picture of immigration, students then consider their own families to have a better idea of their own history and their own voices.
The Great Recession
Students will be asked to research the Financial Crisis of 2008 using articles from that year, identify bias, and explain their own opinions about the topic.
Apple vs. Microsoft
Students examine primary sources in an investigation unit focused on technological innovation and competition technological competition.
The Computer Revolution
Technology has played a massive role in solving social ills. Every technology has been created for a purpose. Technological innovation has certainly had a major impact on our modern day society. One of the technologies that have been used worldwide are computers. The computer's era has provided society with a variety of facilities. The computer era began after the industrial revolution, when people started thinking about their problems critically. Society has taken advantage of the features provided by computer technologies. This has made the computer revolution have a greater impact on modern society than the industrial revolution; without computer technology nothing would be possible today.
The Economic Importance of NC
North Carolina's economy was once dominated almost exclusively by tobacco, textile, and furniture. There has been tremendous diversification over the years to include tourism, recreation, poultry and hog farming, banking, and manufacturing of chemicals, machinery, and computers. Research Triangle Park has brought technology and pharmaceutical research, development, and manufacturing to the state since 1959. Overall, the service and manufacturing sectors remain two of the most vital areas of the state's economy.
The End of the Cold War In the late 1980s, the Cold War came to a dramatic end. The economies of nations behind the Iron Curtain were in trouble. People in East Germany, for instance, could see the prosperity and wealth of their West German neighbors. In Russia, there were long lines of people waiting to buy food. They had to have coupons from the government just to buy socks. Some historians believe that the trillions of dollars that both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. spent on nuclear arms and conventional armies had caused the problems in Russia. There was also a lot of pent up demand for freedom in the citizens living behind the Iron Curtain.
The Reunification of Germany
On October 3, 1990, East and West Germany were reunited, after being separate states for forty years. 20 years ago German Chancellor Helmut Kohl pushed unification forward and served as the architect of a united Germany. He promised East Germans blooming landscapes and a new western-style life.
The Attacks on September 11th, 2001
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Often referred to as 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of George W. Bush. Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.
The War on Terrorism
We think of wars beginning with a cataclysmic event—everything up to that moment could have gone either way until "the moment" occurs that makes a war inevitable. It is that clap of thunder, we believe, that coalesces events into something that we recognize as war. The designation that a series of events has become a "war" wonderfully concentrates public and official attention on a situation that had not previously commanded interest. For President Bush, the "War on Terror" encompassed more than the fight against Osama bin Laden and his minions and began well before 9/11.
Operation Iraqi Freedom
OIF was launched on March 20, 2003. The immediate goal, as stated by the George W. Bush Administration, was to remove Saddam Hussein’s regime, including destroying its ability to use weapons of mass destruction or to make them available to terrorists. The broad, longer-term objective included helping Iraqis build “a new Iraq that is prosperous and free.” After the initial combat operations, the focus of OIF shifted from regime removal to the more open-ended mission of helping an emerging new Iraqi leadership improve security, establish a system of governance, and foster economic development. Over time, challenges to the emerging Iraqi leadership from homegrown insurgents and some foreign fighters mounted.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall
Word spreads like fire through East and West Berlin. People descend on the border crossings to test the new information. Startled guards lose control of the crowds. By midnight, people dance on the wall that once held them prisoner in their own country. The gates are open. East Germans are free.
Ronald Reagan
At the end of his two terms in office, Ronald Reagan viewed withsatisfaction the achievements of his innovative program known as the Reagan Revolution, which aimedto reinvigorate the American people and reduce their reliance upon Government. He felt he had fulfilled his campaign pledge of 1980 to restore "the great, confident roar American progress and growth and optimism."
Mikhail Gorbachev
The collapse of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics radically changed the world's economic and political environment. No other conflict of interest dominated the post World War Two world like the cold war did. One man is credited with ending the cold war, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Lech Walesa
Walesa, the son of a carpenter, received only primary and vocational education and in 1967 began work as an electrician at the huge Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. He witnessed the 1970 food riots in Gdansk in which police killed a number of demonstrators. When new protests against Poland's communist government erupted in 1976, Walesa emerged as an anti-government union activist and lost his job as a result. On Aug. 14, 1980, during protests at the Lenin shipyards caused by an increase in food prices, Walesa climbed over the shipyard fence and joined the workers inside igniting the first cries of "down with communism".