(gr. 6-8)

In this grade 6–8 history + strategy PBL unit, students investigate how strategy, technology, and decision-making shaped major wars by exploring the driving question: “How did strategy, technology, and decision-making shape the outcomes of major wars, and what can we learn from them for the future?” They choose a conflict (WWI, WWII, or the Civil War), analyze a pivotal decision (e.g., D-Day, the atomic bomb, Gettysburg), and create a strategic simulation/alternate-history map to present evidence-based conclusions in a “War Room” symposium.

💡 Driving Question

How did strategy, technology, and decision-making shape the outcomes of major wars, and what can we learn from them for the future?

🎯 Big Idea

Understanding past conflicts helps us see the interplay of leadership, ethics, and innovation in shaping societies.

🧠 Design Thinking Focus

Empathize with historical context → Define key conflict challenge → Ideate alternate strategies → Simulate → Reflect

📚 Depth & Complexity Icons

• Patterns: Recurring causes and effects of war

• Ethics: The moral cost of victory

• Multiple Perspectives: Soldiers, civilians, leaders, nations

• Big Ideas: Power, survival, innovation in warfare

🧩 Key Tasks

• Choose a major war (WWI, WWII, or Civil War)

• Analyze a key turning point or decision (e.g., D-Day, the atomic bomb, Gettysburg)

• Design a strategic simulation or alternate history map

• Present findings in a “War Room” symposium using evidence

🔍 DOK 3–4 / Bloom’s (Analyze–Evaluate–Create)

• How might changing one decision have altered the war’s outcome?

• Evaluate leaders’ choices using ethical and strategic criteria.

• Create a model simulation that demonstrates how logistics and strategy intersect.