The standards and objectives in the seventh-grade course, World Studies II, will allow students to extend the foundational skills, concepts, processes, and knowledge gained in grades K-6 and prepare students to be college, career, and civic ready. Despite there being a different overall focus for each subsequent course, students will explore the content through the following lenses:

• Inquiry

• Behavioral sciences

• Civics and Government

• Economics

• Geography

• History

As students develop cognitively, these lenses become more focused based on the grade-level content and disciplinary thinking skills. These six strands should not be taught in isolation but woven together to form an integrated study that helps students understand the world in which we live. 

World Studies II will continue to expand upon the knowledge, skills, and enduring understandings acquired in the sixth-grade examination of the emergence, expansion, and decline of civilizations by beginning at 1400 CE and moving into the globalized network of nations in the modern world. Modern world is defined by a time in which societies and regions witnessed the birth of the following developments: 

• Greater awareness of other cultures

• Creation of a global economy

• Rise of powerful nation-states

• Major technological advancements

• Deepening reliance on science

The course should be taught in a way that leads students to make connections between historical events and their own lives. This should be accomplished through an investigation of the various factors that shaped the development of societies and regions in the modern world as well as global interactions between those societies. A conscious effort should be made to include an integrated study of various societies and regions from every continent (Africa, Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australia). 

The intent of the North Carolina Social Studies standards is to present information through a conceptual framework which allows for greater depth and enduring understandings of content and issues to include, but not limited to, science, technology, invention, and innovation. The standards of this course are conceptual in nature and have been organized around five disciplinary strands and a skill strand designed North Carolina Standards Social Studies - Grade 7 to promote inquiry. 

Every student following the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for Social Studies will engage in rigorous academic courses inclusive of multiple ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives that prepare them with the knowledge, understanding, and skills needed to productively live and engage in a multicultural and globally competitive society.