What does a student learn in StateConnecticut,GradeGrade 10,SubjectSocial Studies?

Students write a big guiding question about a history or civics topic, then break it into smaller questions that drive real research. The goal is a question worth spending weeks on, not one a quick search can answer.

Students pull from civics, economics, geography, and history to research a question, choosing the right type of source or data for each part of the inquiry.

Students learn to judge whether a source is trustworthy, then use what they find to back up a written argument. That means checking who wrote something, why, and whether other sources agree.

Students share what they found through writing, speaking, or another format, then use that research to act on a real issue in their school, community, or beyond.

Students learn how governments are organized and what they actually do, from town halls and state legislatures up to Congress and international bodies like the United Nations.

Students practice habits like fairness, respect, and responsibility when taking part in school decisions, community issues, or political conversations. The goal is to act like a thoughtful citizen, not just a bystander.

Students look at a real news issue and work through it using actual laws, rules, or civic processes to explain what should happen and why.

Students weigh trade-offs before making a choice: what do you gain, what do you give up, and is it worth it? This standard asks students to think through real decisions the same way economists do.

Markets are places (physical or online) where buyers and sellers set prices through competition. Students study how those prices signal where resources, goods, and labor flow in a free-market economy.

Students examine how decisions made by governments and central banks, like setting interest rates or changing tax policy, ripple through the broader economy. They also look at how trade and events in other countries affect prices, jobs, and growth at home.

Students practice real money decisions: how much to save, when to use credit, and where to put money to work over time. The goal is building habits that hold up when the choices are actual and the stakes are real.

Students read maps, photos, and location data to figure out what a place looks like, how it functions, and how people have shaped or been shaped by it.

Students study how a specific place looks and works, from its landforms and climate to the roads and buildings people added. Then they explain how those features shaped what people do there, and how people changed the place in return.

Students study why people move from place to place and how those movements spread languages, religions, and customs from one region to another. They look for patterns across history to explain where communities settled and why.

Students examine how trade, migration, and political decisions link countries and regions to one another, and explain why what happens in one part of the world can reshape daily life somewhere else.

Students trace how societies changed over time and what stayed the same, comparing shifts across different eras and parts of the world. They look for patterns in why things changed and what conditions made change happen faster or slower.

Students look at the same historical event through different eyes, examining how people's backgrounds and experiences led them to see things differently. Those different viewpoints changed what got recorded, remembered, and taught.

Students read primary and secondary sources, judge how reliable each one is, and use specific evidence from those sources to back up a historical argument.

Students examine why major historical events happened and what followed from them, then build a written argument backed by real evidence from the period.