Social Studies

Grade level:  9

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

This Geography course studies the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere and human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use and industries. Students gain geographical perspectives of the world by studying the earth and the interactions of people with places where they live, work and play. Knowledge of geography helps students to address the various cultural, economic, social and civic implications of life in Earth's many environments. 

Grade level:  9

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

Focusing on concepts and skills with maximum value for high school, college, careers, and civic life, Pre-AP World History and Geography is built around three enduring ideas:

1. History is an interrelated story of the world.
   This course explores the structures and forces that reflect and shape the regions, communities, governments, economies, and cultures of humanity—helping students develop an organized, meaningful understanding of time and space. 

2. History and geography are inherently dynamic.
   As historians and geographers uncover new evidence, current assumptions are challenged, and previous arguments gain nuance and context. This course teaches students how to examine sources and data, establish inferences, and ultimately build and critique arguments.

3. Historians and geographers are investigators.
   Pre-AP World History and Geography is designed as a disciplinary apprenticeship in which students learn through the process of discovery by applying the tools of historians and geographers.

The Pre-AP World History and Geography areas of focus prioritize the skills fundamental to the study of history and geography in high school, AP, and beyond. This gives students multiple opportunities to think and work like historians and geographers as they develop and strengthen these disciplinary reasoning skills throughout their education in history and the social sciences.

• Evaluating evidence: Students acquire knowledge by evaluating evidence from a wide range of primary and secondary sources.

• Explaining historical and geographic relationships: Students explain relationships among events and people by marshalling evidence for causation, comparison, and continuity and change over time. 

• Incorporating evidence: Students demonstrate command of quantitative, qualitative, and spatial data by effectively incorporating them into written and oral arguments.

https://pre-ap.collegeboard.org/courses/course-descriptions/world-history-geography

Grade level:  10

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

This World History course engages students in historical thinking focused on the Pre-Modern era to the present, from 1300 to the present. History is the study of past events, often including an explanation of their causes. Students need to understand their historical roots and those of others and how past events have shaped their world. In developing these insights, students must know what life was like in the past and how things change and develop over time. Reconstructing and interpreting historical events provides a needed perspective in addressing the past, the present and the future. 

Grade level:  10

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

Students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes from 1200 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills, practices, and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning and about comparison, causation and continuity and change over time. The course provides six themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: humans and the environment, cultural developments and interactions, governance, economic systems, social interactions and organization, and technology and innovation. College credit is earned with a qualifying score on an AP exam. *Please note that there is an additional exam fee that is set by the College Board every year.  The test fee will be anywhere from $80-$95 per AP exam.

Grade level:  11

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

This U. S. History course explores events, movements and ideas from 1877 to the present. History is the study of past events, often including an explanation of their causes. Students need to understand their historical roots and those of others and how past events have shaped their world. In developing these insights, students must know what life was like in the past and how things change and develop over time. Reconstructing and interpreting historical events provides a needed perspective in addressing the past, the present and the future. 

Grade level:  11

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  AP World History or Honors World History with Teacher Recommendation

In AP U.S. History, students investigate significant events, individuals, developments, and processes in nine historical periods from approximately 1491 to the present. Students develop and use the same skills and methods employed by historians: analyzing primary and secondary sources; developing historical arguments; making historical connections; and utilizing reasoning about comparison, causation, and continuity and change. The course also provides eight themes that students explore throughout the course in order to make connections among historical developments in different times and places: American and national identity; work, exchange, and technology; geography and the environment; migration and settlement; politics and power; America in the world; American and regional culture; and social structures. College credit is earned with a qualifying score on an AP exam.  

*Please note that there is an additional exam fee that is set by the College Board every year.  The test fee will be anywhere from $80-$95 per AP exam.

Grade level:  11-12

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  AP World History or Honors World History with Teacher Recommendation

AP U.S. Government and Politics provides a college-level, nonpartisan introduction to key political concepts, ideas, institutions, policies, interactions, roles, and behaviors that characterize the constitutional system and political culture of the United States. Students will study U.S. foundational documents, Supreme Court decisions, and other texts and visuals to gain an understanding of the relationships and interactions among political institutions, processes, and behaviors. They will also engage in disciplinary practices that require them to read and interpret data, make comparisons and applications, and develop evidence-based arguments. In addition, they will complete a political science research or applied civics project. College credit is earned with a qualifying score on an AP exam.  *Please note that there is an additional exam fee that is set by the College Board every year.  The test fee will be anywhere from $80-$95 per AP exam.  

Grade level:  10-12

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  None

This course is equivalent to an introductory college-level course in human geography. The course introduces students to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine socioeconomic organization and its environmental consequences. They also learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their research and applications. College credit is earned with a qualifying score on an AP exam. *Please note that there is an additional exam fee that is set by the College Board every year.  The test fee will be anywhere from $80-$95 per AP exam.

Grade level:  11-12

Credit:  1

Prerequisite:  Psychology

The AP Psychology course introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. While considering the psychologists and studies that have shaped the field, students explore and apply psychological theories, key concepts, and phenomena associated with such topics as the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatments of psychological disorders, and social psychology. Throughout the course, students employ psychological research methods, including ethical considerations, as they use the scientific method, evaluate claims and evidence, and effectively communicate ideas. College credit is earned with a qualifying score on an AP exam.  *Please note that there is an additional exam fee that is set by the College Board every year.  The test fee will be anywhere from $80-$95 per AP exam. 

Grade level:  10-12

Credit:  .50

Prerequisite:  None

Family finance; insurance; banking; credit purchasing; economic principles and systems; global economy; investments; decision-making process. 

Grade level:  9-12 CCHS

Credit:  .50 Credit at CCHS

Prerequisite:  None

Contemporary U. S. History is a study of local, state and national government operations; economic issues; citizenship responsibilities; current events and historical origins; problem solving techniques. 

Grade level:  10-12

Credit:  .50 

Prerequisite:  None

Government and Civics is the study of citizenship responsibilities and government - introduction; federal, state and local government; organization and function. It also covers the study of United States voting procedures; court operations; local, state and national lawmaking. 

Grade level:  9-12

Credit:  .50 

Prerequisite:  None

The Kentucky Studies elective course brings together various elements of Kentucky Studies stressed in the earlier grades. The course focuses on the historical and cultural forces that have influenced the people and the institutions of the Commonwealth. The Kentucky Studies elective should give equal chronological coverage to Kentucky before and after the Civil War. It should stress the role of geography in the state's development and the importance of the regional variations across Kentucky. The customs of the people, their values, their folklore, and their family life should be examined in the context of such forces as agrarianism and urbanism. All of this should be done through the historical context, and should enhance the forces shaping government, politics and social change. Topics of study may be the arts, civil rights, communications, education, environment, labor history, religions, the sciences and transportation. 

Grade level:  9-12

Credit:  .50 

Prerequisite:  None

Law and Justice is a study of law-civil, criminal, constitutional, and international; the legal and justice systems. Students will examine the need for rules and regulations; interpretations of the constitution, both state and federal; Supreme Court decisions; the Bill of Rights, and individual rights law, criminal law, family law, and consumer law. The study of the basic social contracts of society will enable students to understand the preferred democratic values: justice, equality, responsibility, freedom, rule of law, human rights, honesty, equity, rational process and human dignity. 

Grade level:  10-12

Credit:  1 

Prerequisite:  None

Psychology is an introduction to the basic scientific theoretical principles of individual human behavior. Students will be exposed to various topics in the field of psychology research. 

Grade level:  9-12

Credit:  .50 

Prerequisite:  None

Sociology is the scientific study of human society. It is concerned with the behavior of human beings in group situations. The study of sociology, therefore, consists of trying to understand: The basic units and institutions of social life, such as the family, schools, neighborhoods, rural and urban communities, and the many other kinds of groups with which humans identify. This group can include occupational, political, religious, ethnic, family, economic status, or ideology. The sociological perspectives focus on how those social relationships arise, why they persist, why antagonisms develop, and how they maintain social order to contribute to social change.