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Grade 8 Individuals and Societies Course Overview This 16-week, MYP-aligned social studies course combines history, geography, civics, and economics. Through real-world investigations, learners examine how societies and places change, analyze different perspectives, evaluate evidence, and develop informed responses to community challenges. Course Schedule The course requires approximately two hours of study each week. Activities include short readings, maps, historical sources, data analysis, notebook responses, independent research, and project development. Unit 1 Movement Industry and Urban Change Weeks 1–8 Learners investigate how industrialization, technological innovation, urbanization, and migration transformed communities. They analyze maps, population data, photographs, and written accounts to explain causes, consequences, and different historical perspectives. Week 1: Seeing and proving change Week 2: Production and technological innovation Week 3: Urban growth and public health Week 4: Migration and human movement Week 5: Work, reform, and perspective Week 6: Planning a historical investigation Week 7: Creating a public-history briefing Week 8: Presenting and defending a historical judgment Unit project: Industrial Change Investigation and Public History Briefing ---------------------- Unit 2 Designing a Fair and Sustainable Community Weeks 9–16 Learners examine how public systems distribute resources, opportunities, benefits, and costs. They use community data and stakeholder perspectives to evaluate a local issue and recommend a fair, practical, and sustainable response. Week 9: How community systems work Week 10: Reading community data Week 11: Budgets, incentives, and trade-offs Week 12: Access and spatial fairness Week 13: Comparing sustainable responses Week 14: Conducting a local inquiry Week 15: Writing an evidence-based proposal Week 16: Decision hearing and course reflection Unit project: Community Futures Proposal and Decision Hearing