This inquiry leads students through an investigation of youth voting practices. By investigating the compelling question of whether or not they will vote, students consider the ways in which the voting habits of youth provide a unique opportunity to reflect on their own voting preferences.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of students’ rights and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. By investigating the compelling question, students consider the ways in which their rights provide a unique perspective on learning about the First Amendment and the extent to which schools are “special areas,” in which various courts have made rulings that may be seen as limiting students’ First Amendment rights.

This inquiry uses the ancient and modern Olympic games as a context for students to explore the compelling question "Are the Olympics about more than sports?" Students investigate the ancient and modern Olympics using a range of historical and secondary sources to learn more about the historical and mythological origins of the games; the rebirth of the games in France; and the broader goals of the Olympics, including nurturing the arts.

This inquiry prompts students to investigate the social, economic, and environmental issues surrounding the global banana industry. In investigating the compelling question regarding real cost of bananas, students explore the pros and cons of the banana industry. They also begin to build a foundational understanding of the complicated relationship between government and business in the local, national, and global economy.

The goal of this inquiry is to help students analyze a pivotal event within the American Revolution. Students look at the grievances of American colonists prior to 1773, and then examine their choice of action, as well as the British response. This inquiry invites students to use multiple perspectives to assess historic and modern-day cries for justice and why revolutionaries often break laws to further their cause.

In this inquiry, students consider the causes, symptoms, and reasons for the rapid geographic expansion of the disease and how this pandemic affected people of the 14th century and beyond. Through their investigation of sources in this inquiry, students should develop an understanding of the consequences of the Black Death and an informed awareness of the importance of preparing for future diseases and possible pandemics.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of maps and spatial representation, exploring how and why we depict the physical world the way we do on maps. The compelling question "Can my life fit on a map?" encourages students to consider our ability to represent real-world places on a map. In doing so, students explore the meaning and purpose of maps, the tools that help us represent places, the purposes of those tools, and how we use those tools to read and make maps. This inquiry provides a foundation for students to develop their geographic reasoning and map literacy, both of which are critical to understandind how humans interact with geography and geographic features across time and space.

This inquiry offers students an opportunity to explore the historic controversy surrounding the extent to which the Treaty of Versailles caused World War II. Students consider not only the stipulations of the peace treaty but also the nature of historical interpretation by following the voices of historians throughout the inquiry.

This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to explore how words affect public opinion through an examination of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Students will investigate historical sources related to the novel and reactions of people in the North and South in order to address the compelling question "Can words lead to war?" The final summative assessment asks the to make an argument about the impact of the words in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

This fifth-grade inquiry asks why countries declare their independence. As an integral early step in the process of becoming independent, a declaration of independence functions as an argument for why people should be free. This inquiry focuses on the argument made in the United States Declaration of Independence. With a firm understanding of the American colonists’ argument for independence, the inquiry shifts to students conducting research on declarations of independence in other parts of the Western Hemisphere.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the Industrial Revolution in the United States by examining the manufacturing industry as a proxy for industrialization.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the experiences faced by immigrant groups who traveled to New York throughout the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

In this pdf lesson module, students will consider the question: Did the attack on Pearl Harbor unify America? When students have completed this lesson, they will have created, explained, and defended coherent and evidence-based arguments for the multi-layered ways in which Americans thought about US involvement in WWII in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Lessons will focus on the following topics: 1--Summarize reactions that everyday Americans had to the attack on Pearl Harbor; 2--Use relevant evidence to describe how people justified American involvement in the war, despite their misgivings; and 3--Make a claim with relevant evidence that explains the different ways that African Americans thought about the war.

In this inquiry, students examine the extent to which the Chinese and Romans had knowledge of and interacted with one another. This inquiry is about the historical antecendent to the Silk Road.

The goal of this inquiry is for students to gain an informed, critical perspective on the United States Constitution as it stood at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. By investigating the justness of the Constitution, students examine how the Constitution structures the government, the Constitution’s relationship to slavery, and the extent to which the amendment process makes the government more democratic. Through taking a critical look at the Constitution, students should understand the government the Constitution created and develop an evidence-based perspective that serves as a launching pad for informed action.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the impacts of the printing press by examining its utility in society, both as an instrument to preserve cultural products of the past and as an agent of change. Students create an evidence-based argument about whether the printing press promoted continuity or change after considering the ways in which it preserved existing systems of belief and thought, enabled the dissemination of information, and led to increased exploration and systemic change within European societies.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the fall of the Roman Empire.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of political issues and political parties. By investigating the compelling question about how well political parties represent individuals, students consider their own political ideology as a lens for learning about the extent to which political parties address international and domestic issues.

This inquiry focuses on the concept of universal human rights and fair treatment of all people through the compelling question. The focus on children's rights - the idea that children have unique rights that apply to them as nonadult members of the global citizenry - offers students an opportunity to examine the idea that they have rights and to understand that they can have an impact on the world.

This inquiry investigates the relationship between rules and values as well as the role that rules play in maintaining a civil society.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of electronic and paper maps as representations of the physical world. In examining the different ways in which the two mediums reflect place and positionality, students should consider the utility and relative value of different geographic representations. Through interaction with the formative performance tasks and featured sources, students build their knowledge and understanding so that they are able to develop an argument that answers the compelling question "Do We Still Need Paper Maps?"

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of modernization and development in three African countries: Kenya, Botswana, and Algeria. Students focus on the characteristics of development in these countries and respond to the challenges that each country faces in the light of modernization. The inquiry is designed to be a series of research case studies in which students work in groups to research one of the three countries and write a one-page research summary on their assigned country.

This inquiry focuses on the concept of religious freedom driven by the compelling question "Does religious freedom exist?" and establishes the importance of religious freedom and tolerance as a way for students to learn about world religions and their spread over time. They extend their emerging understanding by investigating how the concept of religious freedom has emerged over time and examining the current status of religious freedom around the world.

The goal of this inquiry is to introduce students to historiography as they wrestle with historical significance within the context of a historical controversy. The common narrative about the end of slavery has given credit to President Abraham Lincoln, who earned the nickname “The Great Emancipator.” However, over the past 30 years, many scholars have sought to revise this narrative, with a critical mass now arguing that the slaves freed themselves. Students look at the laws that emancipated certain slaves over time and then examine the arguments contemporary historians have made about who was responsible for freeing the slaves. This inquiry invites students to engage with the actual historical debate, but rather than focusing on the veracity of claims, students concentrate on the significance of the issues behind the claims. By looking at the controversy about who freed the slaves, students should understand why this issue matters 150 years later. It is important to note that, in their contrasting interpretations, scholars do not really disagree on the facts of emancipation, but rather on the interpretation of those facts. This crucial difference is key to helping students engage in what it means to think and act like historians.

This inquiry investigates the multifaceted views of imperialism in China during the late 19th and early 20th centuries by investigating the compelling question Do the Boxers deserve a bad rap? Students consider not only the brutal events of the Boxer Rebellion in China, but also the reasons why the Boxers rebelled against foreign powers in the first place. While progressing through the inquiry, students consider the political, economic, and religious reasons for both imperialism and the Boxer Rebellion. Students then consider the actions of the Boxers and whether or not those actions might be misunderstood.

This first-grade inquiry features an investigation of economic decision making through the context of how families manage their money. In examining the costs and benefits associated with making decisions about spending and saving money, students should be able to develop an argument with evidence to answer the compelling question “What choices do we make with our money?”

This inquiry engages students in expanding their understandings of families in general and the idea that families can be both similar and different. Although much of family life may be shared - language, religion, culture, and traditions - there are important differences across these elements. The compelling question "How can families be the same and different?" offers students opportunities to explore a range of family dimensions - structure, activities, and traditions.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of recent studies that try to quantify a country's happiness through various economic measures. By investigating the compelling question about whether Americans could be happier, students consider the ways in which economic values impact our perspectives on happiness and the extent to which we could be happier as a country. Students will investigate three studies of global happiness and the platforms of three American political parties to develop an understanding of the relationship between values, economic policy, and how we view economic happiness and could improve upon it.

This inquiry provides students with an opportunity to evaluate the relationship between the dramatic increase in European sugar consumption in the 18th and 19th centuries and the reliance on the labor of enslaved persons to produce sugar in the Western hemisphere. Students explore the environmental, economic, and social consequences of increased sugar production. Students work with featured sources focused on sugar production and the treatment of enslaved workers on sugar plantations.

In this inquiry, students investigate the interaction between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoags that incuded the first Thanksgiving. The compelling question focuses on how the relationship between Native Americans and European settlers deteriorated over time.

This inquiry leads students through the political, social, geographic, and economic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain between roughly the years of 1760 and 1840. Students consider the ways in which movement affects a person's geographic location and daily life as well as the structure of society. Students will develop an interpretation of the positive and negative influences of the Industrial Revolution and the extent to which these influences affected people in the past and people today.

This inquiry explores how communities develop and sustain themselves by examining the positive and negative impacts of development on community environments. In considering the idea that communities grow and change over time, students develop an argument with evidence that answers the compelling question "How do we shape our environment?"

This inquiry engages students in expanding their understandings of diverse cultures. Students examine diverse cultures and histories around the globe.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century by examining the esteemed leader Suleiman the Magnificent. By investigating the compelling question, students are asked to evaluate the postiive and negative impacts Suleiman had on the region. Students create an argument supported by evidence as to the appropriateness of the label "magnificent."

The goal of this inquiry is help students understand the central debate about the government’s role in fostering economic opportunity over the past half century. As this is a historical inquiry, it focuses on the motivations, actions, and impacts of two particular US presidents: Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan. Their economic programs stand in for the larger argument that persists today between liberal and conservative approaches to federal economic policy. Thus, the compelling question “How should the president foster economic opportunity?” is intentionally timeless to emphasize its relevance today. Students look at Johnson’s and Reagan’s visions for the economy, the policies they advanced to achieve their visions, and modern interpretations of each president’s legacy.

This kindergarten inquiry leads students through an investigation of self by recognizing that all humans have both unique and similar characteristics. By investigating the compelling question “Is everyone unique?” students begin to see how they are similar to and different from their classmates. The study of similarities and differences among individuals provides the foundation for students to demonstrate their understanding of and respect for others.

This inquiry is an exploration into the concepts of time, continuity, and change in a community with the dual purpose of establishing students' understandings of the passage of time and explaining why the past matters today. One way to explore present circumstances is through an examination of the short- and long- term effects of the past. Through identifying the relationship of cause and effect, students learn to recognize how continuity and change over time help us understand historical developments in our present communities.

The goal of this inquiry is to help students develop their thinking in terms of continuity and change through learning about US immigration policy actions and their effects over time. By examining whether there is anything new about current immigration policy debates, students compare and contrast the discourse around immigration at three key moments in US history—the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the Immigration Act of 1965—with the current immigration policy. Students need to develop a deep understanding of each of the three policies in order to write a thoughtful argument that analyzes continuities and changes in perceptions of and policies regarding immigration throughout the post–Civil War period of US history.

This inquiry leads students through an investigation of the Great Compromise using various sources related to its adoption. The Great Compromise was the pivotal breakthrough of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. By investigating the compelling question, students examine the structure of government under the Articles of Confederation, investigate two proposals (Virgina and New Jersey plans for a new arrangement, and analyze the role of the Connecticut Plan and the Great Compromise in the development of the United States Constitution. By completing this inquiry, students will begin to understand the importance of compromise in democracies.

This inquiry asks students to investigate the dispute over free trade. By considering the arguments of professional economists who may use the same data but come to very different conclusions, students examine the “price” of free trade as it relates to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In understanding the arguments for and against free-trade policy in general and applying such concepts to existing policy more specifically, students can gain clarity about this age-old debate and become participants in a contemporary discussion involving international trade.