rutheart Posted January 16, 2016 Posted January 16, 2016 (edited) We are slated to finish SOTW4 in the fall, and I want to plan out the rest of the year's history units for 2016-17. I would like to cover more recent history (i.e. 1995-2014) before wrapping back to prehistory/ancients. Has anyone made a list of relevant topics? So far, I've come up with the following (obviously not in chronological order yet): 9/11 and the Patriot Act Electronics and other modern inventions (and how the internet changed the world) Middle East in the modern era (Gulf War and everything else leading up to 9/11) formation of the European Union and the Euro the shift of factories to China Hurricane Katrina The Great Recession and subprime mortgages Y2K/dot com bubble My personal education never covered anything after WWII, so I'll be learning along with my kids. Also, what have you used as a resource for history too recent to be in a textbook yet? Ruth Edited January 16, 2016 by rutheart Quote
sweetpea3829 Posted January 16, 2016 Posted January 16, 2016 I would cover the US Presidents during that time period as well. I may not agree with his politics, but Barack Obama did break racial boundaries to become president. Let's see...civil rights issues of the very recent past might be a topic to cover. Increased racial tensions, as well. Changes in attitudes towards religion (if that sort of thing is important to you). Quote
Miss Tick Posted January 16, 2016 Posted January 16, 2016 Arab Spring Fukushima Daiichi crisis It might be interesting to spend some time talking about North Korea, the recent change in leadership, and apparent continuation of policies means it is likely to be an on-going issue for a long time. 1 Quote
julikins Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 That's a great idea. A short search on Amazon didn't show much to work with. I would probably pick a favorite large Newspaper or news site and scan them for the main events of the last two years. Aren't there usually LIFE or People magazines or something like those that do year-end recaps that could work as a source. I can't help but think of this in relation to world regions, so perhaps searching for main news items per continent would work. Sorry I couldn't be more help, but I think some other topics to think about would be: the Syrian civil war and the refugee crisis the spread of Islam in Worldwide (per continent) the spread of Christianity worldwide Afghanistan The development of India over the last 20 years has been pretty remarkable The Tsunami in Indonesia would be a huge one The recent plane crash surges How reality TV shows, cell phones and selfies, Instagram and Facebook have affected society world-wide Haiti, Nepali, Turkey earthquakes Israel/Palestinian conflict The Chilean miners who were rescued after so long Iranian Nuclear Missile crisis I'm sure you would want to include something about Russia even though I'm not sure what at this point. Anyway, a fun activity would be to make a magazine of the top events of the last 30 years or something like that. It could be as complicated as scrapbooking or as simple as hand-drawn, but would work on research and reporting skills. It would also end up as a wonderful keepsake, especially if each child does one and they can work on composing the reports in their own words from their own perspectives. You may have a totally different perspective or goal in mind, but I love the idea and am just running with it. Hope you have a great time doing this together. 1 Quote
Freedom Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Check the table,of contents for the Notgrass American history published in 2014... That may fill in some gaps as well. Glad you started this thread! I need to brainstorm the same.... 2 Quote
strawberryjam Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Brain Pop videos cover some of these more recent historical events. 1 Quote
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