Social Studies Teaching

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives) This course surveys United States history until the Civil War. It gives students a broad exposure to significant trends and competing narratives in the first half of U.S. history through an integration of lectures, discussions, readings and activities with primary and secondary sources. We will examine the encounter between people from the Americas, Europe, and Africa, the creation and development of the American nation state, immigration, ethnicity, and the shifting definitions of what constitutes an "American", movements promoting reform and social justice along the lines of race, class, and gender, and demographic and economic changes. We will also consider how Christians in America challenged and critiqued American life, culture, and policy.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives) This course surveys United States history from the Civil War to the present. It gives students a broad exposure to significant trends and competing narratives in the second half of U.S. history through an integration of lectures, discussions, readings and activities with primary and secondary sources. We will examine the development of the American nation state, shifting definitions of what constitutes an "American", movements promoting rights and social justice along the lines of race, class, and gender, the creation and growth of a consumer culture, patterns of urbanization, suburbanization, and the role of print and electronic media in creating a national mass culture. We will also consider how Christians in America challenged and critiqued American life, culture, and policy.

(4 credits) (American history) Building on the skills students developed in the Colloquium in American history, the Seminar in American history invites students to do the work of a historian. Seminars focus more deeply on some period or issue or question, and students will write a significant research paper related to the seminar topic that demonstrates advanced familiarity with the historiography and advanced skills at analyzing and using primary sources. Prerequisite: HIS206 or permission of instructor.Note: This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives) ?The Search for a Useful Past: Antiquity and the Middle Ages? explores the intersection of religion, political organization, cultural expression, and human community through a historical investigation of the ancient Greek city-state, the Roman Empire and early Christianity, and medieval society. We begin with the culture, politics, and history of the ancient Greek polis. From there, we move to the culture, politics, and history of the Roman Empire, attending to how Rome appropriated the ideas of the Greeks and the development of Christianity as a deviant religious subculture within the empire. The course concludes with medieval and early modern Europe: a world of developing cities, political empires, and the cultural dominance of the Christian church.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Historical Perspectives) This course runs from the medieval world to the present. Students will trace a basic outline of European history from the emergence of early Europe through the Middle Ages, out of which the modern West evolved, treating the breakup of Christendom, the development of modern science, Europe's colonization outside its borders, the Atlantic revolutions, and the evolution of modern society through the 20th century. We will especially concentrate on non-Western portraits of European colonization. Students will learn to work with basic documents in European history as well as a few significant arguments from historians. The student's primary work will be document studies and essays using such documents to test explanations by historians. In this way students should be able to express their understanding of primary documents and relevant historian's arguments.

(4 credits) (European/world history) Building on the skills students developed in the Colloquium in European / World history, the Seminar in European/World history invites students to do the work of a historian. Seminars focus more deeply on some period or issue or question, and students will write a significant research paper related to the seminar topic that demonstrates advanced familiarity with the historiography and advanced skills at analyzing and using primary sources. Prerequisite: HIS203HP or HIS204HP or permission of instructor.Note: This course may be taken more than once provided a different topic is studied.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Self and Society) (American politics) A broad survey of the major political and governmental institutions in the United States, this course examines how citizens attempt to influence their government and how the government responds. The course also develops the foundations for a biblical perspective on the role of government and the role of citizens.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Self and Society) (American politics) A survey of contemporary political ideologies such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism, and others. Students will seek to understand the relevance of these ideologies for public policy, and will seek to develop a Christian perspective on, and critique of, contemporary ideologies.

(4 credits, non-yearly, consult department) (American politics) A survey of the historical development of American political thought with attention to significant American political thinkers from the colonial period to the present. Special emphasis will be given to the uneasy relationship between liberalism and democracy and the interaction between American political institutions and culture.Prerequisite: junior class standing, or permission of the instructor. Cross-Referenced: Cross-referenced in history.

(3 credits, alternate years, consult department) The content, technique and materials for teaching social science at the secondary level (for economic, history, political science, social science and sociology majors). This course requires a 30-hour practicum and is required of each candidate seeking an endorsement in this content area.Note: Does not count toward a major or minor in economics, history, political science or sociology.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Self and Society) An introduction to sociology, its major concepts, tools and perspectives. This course provides an understanding of societies; of culture; of major social institutions such as the family, religion and education; of social inequality; and of social change.

(4 credits) This course is about learning to critically think about society and various problems in society. This course will examine a number of social issues as we wrestle with how we can decide if an issue is a social problem, decide which social problems might be more significant than others, and evaluate potential solutions for social problems. We are going to wrestle with some challenging questions with the goal of helping us to think deeply about how we might seek justice on an individual level and within society.Cross-Referenced: Cross-referenced in criminal justice.

(4 credits) (NWCore option under Self and Society) In this course students learn how, using methodologies such as observation, survey and experimentation, psychological science explores the causes and consequences of human action. An overview of major findings from the field of psychology such as biological bases of behavior, learning and memory, motivation and emotion, human development, personality, intelligence, psychopathology and therapy, the effect ofothers on individuals will be discussed and students will be encouraged to apply this knowledge to their own views and actions. Students will consider why the integration of faith and science in understanding humans is important and will explore ways of accomplishing this integration.

(4 credits ) (NWCore option under Self and Society) This course explores the development of the child from the prenatal period into adolescence. Children's physical, cognitive, emotional, personality, social, moral and faith development is examined. Psychological research methods for studying children are covered.

(4 credits) Microeconomics deals with price determination and how the price system functions. Supply and demand, output, competition, monopoly, resource pricing, international trade and finance will be studied.

(4 credits) Macroeconomics concerns itself with economic aggregates such as inflation, unemployment, recessions, national debt, and income inequality international trades. Macroeconomic models will be introduced. These models will be used to understand the application of monetary and fiscal policy.