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I. Historical Perspective
Content Standard 1
Time & Chronology:
1. Measure chronological time by decades and centuries.
2. Place major events in the development of their local community and the state of Michigan in chronological order.
3. Place major events in the early history of the United States in chronological order.
Content Standard 2
Comprehending The Past:
1. Summarize the sequence of key events in stories describing life from the past in their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States.
2. Use narratives and graphic data to compare the past of their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States with present day life in those places.
3. Recount the lives and characters of a variety of individuals from the past representing their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States.
4. Identify and explain how individuals in history demonstrated good character and personal virtue.
Content Standard 3
Analyzing and Interpreting the Past:
1. Use primary sources to reconstruct past events in their local community.
2. Interpret conflicting accounts of events in both Michigan and United States history and analyze the viewpoints of the authors.
3. Compose simple narratives of events from the history of the state of Michigan and the United States.
Content Standard 4
Judging Decisions from the Past:
1. Identify problems from the past that divided their local community, the state of Michigan, and the United States and analyze the interests and values of those involved.
2. Select decisions made to solve past problems and evaluate those decisions in terms of ethical considerations, the interests of those affected by the decisions, and the short and long-term consequences in those decisions.
II. Geographic Perspective
Content Standard 1
People, Places and Cultures:
1. Locate and describe cultures and compare the similarities and differences among the roles of women, men, and families.
2. Locate and describe diverse kinds of communities and explain the reasons for their characteristics and locations.
3. Locate and describe the major places, cultures, and communities of the nation and compare their characteristics.
Content Standard 2
Human/Environment Interaction:
1. Explain basic ecosystem concepts and processes.
2. Describe the location, use, and importance of different kinds of resources and explain how they are created and the consequences of their use.
3. Describe the major physical patterns, ecosystems, resources, and land uses of the state, region, and country and explain the processes that created them.
4. Explain how various people and cultures have adapted to and modified the environment.
Content Standard 3
Location, Movement and Connections:
1. Describe major kinds of economic activity and explain the factors influencing their location.
2. Describe the causes, consequences, routes and movement of major migration to the United States.
3. Explain how transportation and communication link people and communities.
4. Describe some of the major movements of goods, people, jobs and information within Michigan and the United States and explain the reasons for the movements.
Content Standard 4
Regions, Patterns and Processes:
1. Draw sketch maps of the community, region, and nation.
2. Describe places, cultures, and communities in the United States and compare them with those in other regions and countries.
3. Describe the geography of Michigan at major times in its history and explain the reasons for its change.
4. Describe the physical, economic, and cultural geography of contemporary Michigan and its causes, advantages, and disadvantages.
5. Describe the Great Lakes ecosystem, and explain physical and human processes that act upon them.
6. Describe the geography of major United States regions, compare the regions, and explain the processes that created them.
Content Standard 5
Global Issues and Events:
1. Locate major world events and explain how they impact people and the environment.
III. Civic Perspective
Content Standard 1
Purposes of Government:
1. Distinguish among local, state, and national government in the United States and describe the roles of government institutions at all three levels.
2. Give examples of authority and the use of power without authority.
3. Give reasons for limiting the power of government.
Content Standard 2
Ideals of American Democracy:
1. Interpret the development and summarize the main points in the Declaration of Independence.
2. Interpret the meaning of specific rights guaranteed by the Constitution including religious liberty, free expression, privacy, property, due process of law and equal protection of the law.
3. Explain responsibilities citizens have to uphold constitutional rights.
Content Standard 3
Democracy in Action:
1. Describe what state and federal courts are expected to do.
2. Describe issues that arise over constitutional rights.
Content Standard 4
American Government and Politics:
1. Distinguish among making, enforcing, and interpreting laws.
2. Explain how law is used to manage conflict in American society.
3. Explain the basic organization of the local, state, and federal governments.
4. Describe how citizens participate in election campaigns.
Content Standard 5
American Government and World Affairs:
1. Explain various ways that nations of the world interact with each other.
2. Describe events in other countries that have affected Americans and, conversely, events within the United States that have affected other countries.
IV. Economic Perspective
Content Standard 1
Individual and Household Choices:
1. Explain why people must face scarcity when making economic decisions.
2. Identify the opportunity costs in personal decision making situations.
3. Use a decision making model to explain a personal choice.
4. Analyze the costs, benefits, and alternatives to using consumer credit.
Content Standard 2
Business Choices:
1. Distinguish between natural resources, human capital, and capital equipment in the production of a good or service.
2. Distinguish among individual ownership, partnership, and corporation.
3. Examine the historical and contemporary role a major industry has played in the state of Michigan and the United States.
Content Standard 3
Role of Government:
1. Use a decision making model to explain a choice involving a public good or service.
2. Distinguish between the economic roles of local, state, and federal governments and cite examples of each.
3. Use a local example to assess the effectiveness of the government at providing public goods or resolving an economic dispute.
Content Standard 4
Economic Systems:
1. Explain how prices are determined in a market economy and how they serve as a means of allocating resources.
2. Describe how they act as a producer and a consumer.
3. Analyze how Michigans location has impacted its economic development.
Content Standard 5
Trade:
1. Trace the national origin of common household items and the trade flows which brought them to the United States.
2. Describe benefits of international trade to consumers and producers.
3. Describe how businesses are involved in trade as producers, distributors, importers, and exporters.
V. Inquiry
Content Standard 1
Information Processing:
1. Locate information about local, state and national communities using a variety of traditional sources, electronic technologies, and direct observations.
2. Organize social science information to make maps, graphs and tables.
3. Interpret social science information about local, state, and national communities from maps, graphs, and charts.
Content Standard 2
Conducting Investigations:
1. Pose a social science question about Michigan or the United States.
2. Gather and analyze information using appropriate information technologies to answer the question posed.
3. Construct an answer to the question posed and support their answer with evidence.
4. Report the result of their investigation including the procedures followed.
VI. Public Discourse and Decision Making
Content Standard 1
Identifying and Analyzing Issues:
1. Pose local, state, and national policy issues as questions.
2. Explain how a particular public issue became a problem and why people disagree about it.
3. Evaluate possible resolutions of a public issue.
Content Standard 2
Group Discussion:
1. Engage each other in conversations which attempt to clarify and resolve issues pertaining to local, state, and national policy.
Content Standard 3
Persuasive Writing:
1. Compose a short essay expressing a decision on a local, state, or national policy issue.
VII. Citizen Involvement
Content Standard 1
 Responsible Personal Conduct:
1. Report how their behavior has been guided by concern for the law.
2. Engage in activities intended to contribute to solving a local, state or national problem they have studied.

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