What would happen if all of history were written down in one really big book? The book would be so long and so complex that there would be no way for any one person to know everything in it. What if, though, instead of learning the whole book, a person just started learning from the time that they were born? Again, there would be far too much for them to ever learn about, but there would be another problem as well: They would quickly become confused. After all, everything that happens in a person’s lifetime depends on events that happened before their life began. We cannot understand the chapter we are in unless we understand earlier chapters.

Social Studies 8 asks this important question: How does learning about the past help us understand today? The course covers almost 1250 years of history, from the beginning of the Middle Ages to 1750. The course provides a broad overview of the time period, not focusing solely on European history, but also covering the Near East, Mesoamerica, Imperial China, pre-Confederation Canada, and other places in the world. Hopefully, by giving students a broad flyover of world history as a whole, they will come to a greater understanding of how all of human history is connected, leading to the world becoming the way that it is today.

While the BC Curriculum focuses on the 7th century to 1750 C.E., this course focuses on 476 to 1750 C.E. The course authors determined that earlier context was needed for students to understand what followed, so some attention has been given to the Fall of Rome and the Early Middle Ages.

The StudyForge Difference

StudyForge Social Studies 8 can be taught in an online asynchronous, online synchronous, hybrid, or face-to-face format. Most readings include multiple pedagogical layers to enhance student learning, including an audio file, fill-in-the-blank note-packages with key words highlighted in the text, and regular formative quizzes. Students can also retake every quiz, which are randomized, to encourage them to strive towards mastery. Challenging vocabulary words are tagged with hover-over definitions so students can develop their vocabulary without needing to go to external sources. Assessments and activities are thought-provoking and engaging, such as an Invention Collection, which looks at key technological developments from around the world, or Make a Medieval Meal, in which students find an online recipe to make a medieval dish. A timeline at the top of every relevant lesson helps orient the students to the lesson’s time period, also indicating the eras that are happening concurrently elsewhere in the world.