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Theme: Continuity and Change
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Our overarching theme of continuity and change provides students with opportunities to explore the dynamic, evolving nature of cities, societies, institutions and individuals throughout history. Through multiple ways of knowing, students investigate, interpret and analyze recurring events, dilemmas and persistent issues. Employing empathy and critical discernment, students learn to relate relevant knowledge of the past to their understanding of contemporary issues.
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Benin, Delhi, Paris, Philadelphia
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What are the defining elements of a social group? What are the defining elements of a society?
What is a community of respect?
What is the role of the individual in a society?
How can an individual contribute to his/her social group?
What does it mean to be a contributive society?
How can studying particular individuals, social groups, societies, cities, and cultural objects help us to understand ourselves, our society, our place in the world?
How does a society, a city, sustain itself, or not?
How did social, political, scientific and cultural events, ideas and people influence America's development?
How has the bold American experiment sustained itself, and how do we imagine that it can sustain itself in the future?
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What is knowledge?
What is the difference between knowledge and ways of knowing?
What is worth knowing and why?
What forms of expression does knowledge take? How is knowledge accumulated?
How/why do geography and the environment affect knowledge?
How can a society increase its store of knowledge?
How is knowledge transferred from society to society and culture to culture?
How does knowledge vary from society to society? What are the commonalities and differences? How have societies changed because of knowledge?
In what ways do civilizations/cities expand/decline because of knowledge? Can knowledge and knowing transcend the physical world?
How are knowledge and knowing ever-changing?
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What is synthesis?
How is synthesis connected to knowledge?
How does synthesis create new knowledge? Does synthesis unify knowledge? And if so, how?
How does a society synthesize knowledge?
What are some ways and methods of synthesizing information?
How is new knowledge, how are new discoveries, synthesized into existing understanding?
What is the value of being able to synthesize? Why is synthesis an important process for developing a coherent understanding?
How do you synthesize the knowledge you have acquired?
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