Unit 1: An Interdependent and Globalized World

A Shrinking World: Seeing The World Through Different Lenses: The Role of Culture, the Environment, and Personal Experience in Shaping a Global Community

This unit is an introduction to the key concepts and analytical tools relevant to the study of our world. You will learn the vocabulary and concepts of critical thinking, which includes recognizing biases and personal assumptions, the basics of map reading and the importance of geography, the principles and elements of religion in a cultural context, and the main ecological concepts needed to understand the connection of science to the humanities. This year will be the foundation for your four-year journey in CORE.

English

In this introductory unit, students will be introduced to the concepts of globalization and critical thinking and begin to understand the responsibility they hold as citizens of a global community.

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In this introductory unit, students will be introduced to the concept of globalization and begin to understand the responsibility they hold as citizens of a global community. As they grasp concepts such as ethnocentrism, and cultural sensitivity, students will see how the world in which they live is just one model of reality and that the study of other cultures must be done objectively. An additional topic of importance that we focus on is critical thinking, another crucial skill necessary for those living in a globalized world.

Key Concepts:

Globalization
Ethnocentrism
Cultural Sensitivity
Critical Thinking
Identity

Readings:

Dumas, Firoozeh. Funny in Farsi. New York: Random House, 1994. Print.
“Critical Thinking,” adapted handout from Jan Rehner
“Globalization,” Thomas L. Friedman

Video:

White Dawn

Social Institutions

The first unit is an introduction to the basic understanding of culture and geography. Students are asked to take on the role of a cultural anthropologist, one who critically thinks about the political, social, economic, and cultural institutions of societies.

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The first unit is an introduction to the basic understanding of culture and geography. Students are asked to take on the role of a cultural anthropologist, one who critically thinks about the political, social, economic, and cultural institutions of societies. Then, they examine the complexity of human evolution by reading adapted handouts based on Jared Diamond’s acclaimed book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and apply how geography impacted the way societies developed into industrious nations or remained more environmentally adaptive indigenous cultures.

Key Concepts:

Critical Thinking
Metacognition
Culture
Globalization
Farm Power

Readings:

Adapted handouts from Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond
Excerpts from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Loorn W. Anderson and David R. Krathwohl
“Body Ritual among the Nacirema,” Horace Miner

Videos:

Guns, Germs, and Steel (National Geographics) Part One
Emerald Forest
Story of Stuff (storyofstuff.com)

Art and Religion

Our first unit is on Critical Thinking, Beliefs, Religion and Worldview. We explore what the discipline of Art, Religion and Philosophy is all about, by contemplating, “What is Art?”  Students learn how art transfigures the commonplace by taking a mere real thing and transforming it into something that makes them think about their thinking.

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Our first unit is on Critical Thinking, Beliefs, Religion and Worldview. We explore what the discipline of Art, Religion and Philosophy is all about, by contemplating, “What is Art?” Students learn how art transfigures the commonplace by taking a mere real thing and transforming it into something that makes them think about their thinking. Art makes us human. But how? This is explored in a deep and complex manner. Then, students study epistemologies and look at how they know what they know. We end with a project where students personalize the curriculum by exploring their own worldviews and beliefs. This is declared and promoted to their classmates through a manifesto and a piece of propaganda.

Key Concepts:

What is art?
Epistemologies
Religion
Worldview/Beliefs
Manifesto
Propaganda

Environmental Science

In the Globalization Unit, the science curriculum focuses on the resources that we share. Our main focus is water and we briefly visit supply and usage in Southern California. In subsequent units our relationship with water is revisited.

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In the Globalization Unit, the science curriculum focuses on the resources that we share. As humans we share a single planet, multiple natural resources that are essential for survival, and a host of environmental problems that we are struggling with around the world. In this unit, we begin to look at humans and our relationship with water. Students investigate issues of water quantity, quality and management in various countries and identify common themes. We end this unit by examining our own water supply and usage in Southern California.

Readings:

Excerpts from “The Hydrologic Cycle”

Video:

Blue Gold: World Water Wars, A film by Sam Bozzo

9th Grade Quick Links