1.  What is culture? What roles does culture play in human and societal development? 

2. What are the common characteristics across cultures? How is unity developed within and among cultures? 

3. What is the role of diversity and how is it maintained within a culture? How do various aspects of culture such as belief systems, religious faith, or political ideals, influence other parts of a culture such as its institutions or literature, music, and art? 

4. How does culture change over time to accommodate different ideas, and beliefs? How does cultural diffusion occur within and across communities, regions, and nations? 

1. How do we learn about the past? 

2. How can we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of different historical sources? 

3. What are the roots of our social, political and economic systems? 

4. What are our personal roots and how can they be viewed as part of human history?

5. Why is the past important to us today? How has the world changed and how might it change in future? 

6. How do perspectives about the past differ, and to what extent do these differences inform contemporary ideas and actions? 

1. Why do people decide to live where they do or move to other places? 

2. Why is location important? 

3. How do people interact with the environment and what are some of the consequences of those interactions? 

4. What physical and other characteristics lead to the creation of regions? 

5. How do maps, globes, geographic tools and geospatial technologies contribute to the understanding of people, places, and environments? 

1. How do individuals grow and change physically, emotionally and intellectually? 

2. Why do individuals behave as they do?

3.  What influences how people learn, perceive, and grow? 

4. How do people meet their basic needs in a variety of contexts? 

5. How do individuals develop over time? 

6. How do social, political, and cultural interactions support the development of identity? 

7. How are development and identity defined at other times and in other places? 

1. What is the role of institutions in this and other societies? 

2. How am I influenced by institutions? 

3. How do institutions change? 

4. What is my role in institutional change? 

1. Under what circumstances is the exercise of political power legitimate? 

2. What are the proper scope and limits of authority?  

3. How are individual rights protected and challenged within the context of majority rule? 

4. What conflicts exist among fundamental principles and values of constitutional democracy?  

5. What are the rights and responsibilities of citizens in a constitutional democracy? 

The unequal distribution of resources necessitates systems of exchange, including trade, to improve the well-being of the economy. Increasingly, economic decisions are global in scope and require systematic study of an interdependent world economy and the role of technology in economic growth.

1. What is to be produced? 

2. How is production to be organized? 

3. How are goods and services to be distributed and to whom? 

4. What is the most effective allocation of the factors of production (land, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship)? 

5. What factors influence decision-making on issues of the production, distribution and consumption of goods? What are the best ways to deal with market failures? 

6. How does interdependence brought on by globalization impact local economies and social systems? 

1. What can we learn from the past about how new technologies result in broader social change, some of which is unanticipated?

2. Is new technology always better than that which it replaces? 

3. How can we cope with the ever-increasing pace of change, perhaps even the concern that technology might get out of control?

4. How can we manage technology so that the greatest numbers of people benefit? 

5. How can we preserve fundamental values and beliefs in a world that is rapidly becoming one technology-linked village? 

6. How do science and technology affect our sense of self and morality? 

7. How are disparate cultures, geographically separated but impacted by global events, brought together by the technology that informs us about events, and offered hope by the science that may alleviate global problems (e.g., the spread of AIDS)? 

8. How can gaps in access to benefits of science and technology be bridged? 

1. What are the different types of global connections? 

2. What global connections have existed in the past, exist currently, and are likely in the future? 

3. How do ideas spread between societies in today’s interconnected world? 

4. How does this result in change in those societies? 

5. What are the other consequences of global connections? 

6. What are the benefits from and problems associated with global interdependence? 

7. How might people in different parts of the world have different perspectives on these benefits and problems? 

8. What influence has increasing global interdependence had on patterns of international migration? 

9. How should people and societies balance global connectedness with local needs? 

10. What is needed for life to thrive on an ever changing and increasingly interdependent planet? 

1. What are the democratic ideals and practices of a constitutional democracy? 

2. What is the balance between rights and responsibilities? 

3. What is civic participation? 

4. How do citizens become involved? 

5. What is the role of the citizen in the community and the nation, and as a member of the world community?