Tracks: Impressions of America
& the New York State Curriculum Standards

Tracks: Impressions of America is a 12-part video series available from PBS stations and BOCES across the state. Rights to record off-air, duplicate, distribute and utilize this series for education extend to August 31, 2002. Teacher guides and a CD-ROM are available by contacting your local PBS station or by calling the Agency for Instructional Technology customer services at 1-800-457-4509 or by visiting visiting the AIT website at www.ait.net.

New York State Social Studies Standards (draft)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correlates to:

1. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their under-standing of major ideas, eras, themes, develop-ments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York. 2. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, develop-ments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives. 3. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the interdependent worlds in which we live-local, national and global-including the spatial distribution of people, places and environments over the Earth's surface. 4. Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their under-standing of how the United States and other societies develop economic systems and associated institutions to allocate scarce resources, how major decision-making units function in the U.S. and other national economies, and how an economy solves the scarcity problem through market and non-market mechanisms. 5. Students will use a variety of skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments, the United States Constitution, the American governmental system, the govern-mental systems of other nations, and inter-national politics, past and present. 6. Students will use a variety of skills to demonstrate their understanding of the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship; and the avenues of participation in American civic life.
National Social Studies Strands Time, Continuity & Change Culture; Individual Development & Identity People, Places & Environments; Global Connections Production, Distribution & Consumption; Science, Technology & Society Power, Authority & Governance; Individuals, Groups & Institutions Civic Ideals & Practices
Tracks #1

Trekking Across Our Land

-Development of diverse Native American cultures -Migration and immigration patterns as dynamic, positive forces. -Pre-Columbian migration of humans from Asia to North America -Agriculture as the driving force in determining settlement patterns of Native Americans -Settlements led to evolution of early Native American societies -Contributions of Native Americans to modern American lifestyles
Tracks #2

Spain Comes to America

-European explorers sought to exploit and control North America -The conflict between European nations in North America -Impact of European settlers on Timucuan people of Florida -Early Atlantic trade routes -Spain & England battle for control of America -The role of the soldier in European expansion.
Tracks #3

Early European Settlements

-Interactions between Europeans and Powhatans -The motivation and goals of Jamestown, VA settlers -Selection of location for the Jamestown settlement -Evolution of a plantation economy dependent on slavery

-The economic boom of tobacco

-How indentured servants were eventually replaced by African slaves -Early examples of racism
Tracks #4

Seeds of Revolution

-How New England settlements differ from other regions -New England Pilgrims and Puritans promote concepts of religious freedom and human equality -Religious persecution in Europe drives ideologies of New England settlers -Shipbuilding as an economic force in the development of Boston, MA

-Trade an important factor even in earliest settlements

-The Boston Tea Party -Revolutionaries organize in Faneuil Hall
Tracks # 5

Independence!

-The Declaration of Independence -Loyalists views conflict with revolutionary colonists -Taxation without representation -Economic forces fuel revolutionary fervor -The Continental Congress and creation of a Continental Army -The ideals of personal liberty as presented in the Declaration of Independence
Tracks # 6

A New Nation

-U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights -The War of 1812 -The selection of Washington D.C. as the nation's capitol -Jefferson's passion for science and technology -The Connecticut Compromise establishes the bicameral legislature -Patriotism & the new Nationalism
Tracks # 7

Westward Ho!

-Settlement moves westward -Contrasting views of European settlers and Native Americans toward the land -Mexican-American War and Louisiana Purchase -Causes of the spread and entrenchment of slavery

-The establishment of transportation routes to the west

-The Trail of Tears and the establishment of Indian reservations -19th Century Federal policy toward Native Americans
Tracks # 8

Divided & United

-The American Civil War -Southern values and politics are contrasted with the industrialized North -Racial discrimination -The role of the cotton gin on southern agricultural economy -Abolitionism - The modern Civil Rights movement
Tracks # 9

The Urbanization of America

-The Industrial Revolution -Increased immigration brings cultural diversity -Shift from rural to urban societies -Mechanization fuels the American economy

-Evolution of the labor force from agricultural-based to manufacturing-based

-Organized labor -Pluralism and cultural diversity become key characteristics of national identity.
Tracks # 10

The Road to Mt. Rushmore

-Westward expansion -Spanish influence in the West -Devastation of native buffalo herds & other environmental damage from westward expansion -Railroads to the west encouraged ranching, farming & mining development

-Gold Rush

-Homestead Act -Mt. Rushmore monument epitomizes expansionist values
Tracks # 11

America at War

-Manifest Destiny -America as a world military power

WWI & WWII

-The Great Depression -The Atomic Age -The New Deal -Military patriotism
Tracks # 12

Changing Times and Modern Industries

-The Cold War

-20th Century industrial diversification

-NATO

-Modern Asian immigration

-The break-up of the Soviet Union

-The Marshall Plan

-Modern advances toward racial and gender equality

-The emergence of a global economy

-Cold War sparks industrial and technological growth

-Sustainable resources

-Cuban Missile Crisis

-Civil Rights legislation

-The U.S. role in promoting the spread of democracy

©1999 Agency for Instructional Technology
For permission to use this document, contact: AIT Broadcast Services, 1-800-457-4509, Box A, Bloomington, IN 47402-0120.

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