Breaking Down the 5 Main Social Studies Topics

Kirsten 0:00

This is the social studies teacher podcast a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm curious to know if you southern teach an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies, I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode of the social studies teacher Podcast. Today, I'm going to be talking a little bit about the five main social studies domains that you will see in most social studies curriculum. I'll be talking about each one, and why they're important and give you a couple of examples of topics that might be falling under each domain category. This topic is something I presented on recently, if you were at the live PD training about a deep dive into the five main social studies, domains, that was a really fun training to present. And we're just going to be sharing just a small snippet of that, we're just gonna go into a surface level overview of each of the five domains. I think it is something that's important for everybody to know about. It's just something that I won't be going as in depth as when I was doing the live training.

Alright, let's go ahead and get started with the five domains.

The first one being geography. The second one is history, the third culture in society, fourth, government and civics and number five economics.

So first off Geography. Geography is the study of the Earth's physical features, landscapes, environments, and human interactions with the world around us. It's important for geography to be studied because it helps students understand the wide diversity of the planet, such as landforms, climates, all the different resources available, and also the impact of human activity on the environment. The effects when we modify we're, you know, adapt to the environment in general and also the relationships between cultures and the landscapes that they may reside in reasons why they may move to certain places or settle in certain places and reasons why they may leave certain places. A couple of Example topics would be number one maps and globes, that's a pretty common skill across many states. This is something where students are exploring different types of maps and learning and understanding tools like a compass rose, and the difference between cardinal directions and intermediate directions, understanding latitude longitude understanding that the grid system exists. All of those different features will help students read, interpret and create their own maps. The physical environment is another example of a geography topic. This is encompassing climate landforms, natural resources and natural hap hazards such as tornadoes or hurricanes. And this can vary depending on the specific curriculum, US history would be focusing on the US physical environment. But then Texas history would be specifically focusing on that state's physical environment and you might have in your state, if you're in California, or Tennessee or Maryland, you might have your own type of state history where you're focusing on the physical environment of that specific state.

History is the study of past events, people and societies to understand how they shaped the present, and future, we studied the past, to understand how we are living in the present and how it could affect our future. That's something that's super important. It also provides insight into the different roots of cultures or communities, and conflicts around the world or in a community in your state or country. It helps students develop critical thinking, and a sense of historical context, they are trying to kind of picture where things are in a span of time, and why things are happening, and just the different events and situations occurring, and what are the kind of causes that occurrence. A couple of example topics would be number one, of course, the American Revolution, understanding the causes and effects of the Revolutionary War and the impact it had on a variety of groups living in the United States in Great Britain, and also the world wars, analyzing the causes, effects and global impact of World Wars one into what happened even in between why there was a large low, and how that build up led to the Second World War.

All right, going into culture and society. This encompasses the study of diverse human cultures, traditions, customs and societal structures. So we're thinking, the human culture, like different celebrations, holidays, traditions, but also society as a whole and technological advancement, science advancements, the arts, music, all that, that encompasses the culture of humans, and the different communities that they live in. This is important because culture in society promotes empathy, respect for differences, and it also fosters a more classroom, a more inclusive classroom environment, if we're thinking kind of at the their direct level, their local, you know, their immediate level. So maybe they are kind of it's kind of broad for them to understand, like all of these, you know, people around the world and how it impacts them and how different cultures are different. But they can also kind of learn about these different holidays in communities, and kind of have more of a respect for all of the diverse diverse people in their own classroom and just make connections based on that. A couple of examples would be cultural celebrations, exploring holidays, and festivals and traditions from around the world. This is one of my favorite units to do around the holiday season. It's just a kind of nice way to end the year. And just think about how other people celebrate different holidays and the time of year they celebrate those holidays. Another example would be literature in the arts, analyzing stories, myths and legends that reflect cultural values and how it impacts those specific communities.

All right, the fourth domain, government and civics, government and civics involve the study of political systems, the rights and responsibilities and the roles of citizens in society. In the upper elementary level, most of the time, we're focusing on how our country is run So we're thinking federal, state and local governments. That's the main focus. But I know there are other grade levels that focus on, you know, history of governments like ancient civilizations or just different types of governments around the world. But I know in upper elementary, the focus is mainly on the US democracy. This is important because teaching government and civics can empower students to be informed, engaged citizens who understand their rights, and their responsibilities. And at the upper elementary level, the democratic process. Some examples would be teaching the three branches of government exploring the executive branch, legislative, branch and judicial branches and how each one balances the other with the checks and balances. Then another example topic would be understanding the rights and responsibilities of citizens. So what their roles are, what they can do, as citizens of our country or state, voting in elections, participating in the democratic process, all of those things that they have a right to as citizens.

They'll last topic or domain is economics. Economics is the study of how societies manage resources, make choices about production and consumption and understanding things like supply and demand, thinking mostly just like government and civics focusing kind of on the free enterprise system, which is mainly how our economy is run in the United States. But in other grade levels, they may focus on other types of economies like socialism, but mostly we're thinking about the purchase, or selling of goods and services by producers and consumers. This is important because this equips students with the financial literacy knowledge, decision making skills and an understanding of how economies function specifically in the United States, some topics that encompass economics would be goods and services. So understanding the differences between goods and services, things we can hold in our hands versus things that are intangible things that people or consumers cannot touch, but it's something that they need, like mowing the lawn or getting their hair cut. And then another example would be creating a simple budget and saving, understanding how they can save or budget for certain items, you know, have a fund where they are saving up for something they want, but also having that type of savings where if something happens, that's unplanned versus planned spending, they can also pay for that as well. So that's just something that's important to teach students.

All right. Well, this was a very brief dive into the five Social Studies domains, I hope you got some value out of it, or just some really great reminders of why teaching each of these domains throughout the year is important. I know that each state is different. Each grade level is different. But I hope at some point, that you take the time to explain to your students why we're studying these certain concepts. This is a really great way to kind of increase the buy in of students wanting to learn or be receptive and open to learning different social studies concepts throughout the year.

All right, well, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I cannot wait to talk to you again next week. Thanks for listening to the social studies teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review. I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the southern teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.