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Search every subject world, from Preschool to Grade 12. The first five courses of every subject path are free.

24 courses

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History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Goals, Resources and Opportunity Costs

Every financial decision starts with limited resources and competing goals. Through fictional teenagers' choices, learners distinguish needs from wants, write SMART goals and calculate the saving needed to reach them, measure opportunity costs in money and time, think at the margin, and learn to ignore sunk costs. The elective uses fictional people and numbers and never gives personal financial advice.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Historical Reasoning and Source Corroboration

What happened on King Street in Boston on the night of 5 March 1770? Learners investigate the Boston Massacre through an engraving, a British officer's account and trial testimony. They practice sourcing, contextualization, close reading and corroboration, separate perspective from bias and propaganda, and write their own carefully corroborated account.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 110 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Income, Work and Taxes in Fictional Cases

How does work turn into income, and income into take-home pay? With fictional workers, learners compare hourly, salary and other pay, calculate overtime under the federal rule, convert salaries to hourly rates, trace gross pay to net pay through payroll taxes and a fictional withholding table, apply a fictional progressive tax table (marginal versus average rates), and weigh career choices using human capital and total compensation. No real tax filing advice is given.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Constitutional Government and Federalism

Learners investigate why the first US government under the Articles of Confederation struggled, how delegates in 1787 built a new Constitution through hard compromises (including compromises over slavery), and how the Constitution divides power among three branches and between the nation and the states. They read the Preamble, the Tenth Amendment and Federalist No. 51, and weigh the ratification debate.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Expansion, Slavery, Resistance and Civil War

Learners trace how each new territory reopened the question of slavery, from the Missouri Compromise to Dred Scott, study the resistance of enslaved people and abolitionists, read the seceding states' own explanations, and follow the Civil War's turning points, including emancipation and the service of Black soldiers.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Budgets, Cash Flow and Tradeoffs

A budget is a plan for money before it is spent. Using fictional young adults, learners build a monthly budget from net income, separate fixed from variable expenses, follow cash flow through the month to catch shortfalls, plan for irregular income and emergencies, test one common rule of thumb (50/30/20) and its limits, and adjust a budget when circumstances change.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Reconstruction and Contested Citizenship

After the Civil War, the nation rewrote its Constitution to abolish slavery and promise citizenship, equal protection and the vote to Black men. Learners read the Reconstruction amendments closely, see how freedpeople built schools, churches and political power, trace how violence and court decisions rolled those gains back into Jim Crow, and examine who else was included in or excluded from citizenship: Chinese immigrants, Native Americans and women.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Saving, Compounding and Inflation

Why does starting early matter, and why can money sitting still lose value? Learners calculate simple interest (I = Prt) and compound growth (A = P(1 + r/n)^nt), estimate doubling time with the rule of 72, compare short and long time horizons, measure inflation's effect on purchasing power, approximate real returns, and learn how deposit insurance protects bank and credit union deposits. All accounts and rates are fictional, and no products are recommended.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Industrialization, Migration and Reform

Between the Civil War and 1920, railroads, steel and oil made the United States the world's largest industrial economy, millions of immigrants and Black Southerners moved to booming cities, workers organized and struck, and reformers fought to fix the problems industry created. Learners analyze data, sources and the debates of the era and judge what Progressive reform achieved and whom it left out.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Borrowing, Interest and Credit Concepts

Borrowing lets people buy now and pay later, at a price. With fictional loans and cards, learners calculate interest and total cost, see why paying only a small fixed amount on a credit card can take years, follow how loan payments split between interest and principal, compare offers by APR and total cost, learn the factor categories behind credit reports and scores, and recognize red flags of high-cost and predatory lending. No lenders or products are recommended.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

The United States and Global Conflicts

From the Spanish–American War of 1898 to the end of the Cold War, the United States became a world power. Learners examine debates over overseas empire, why the US entered two world wars, life and injustice on the home front, the decision to use atomic bombs from several perspectives, and the strategy of containment that shaped the Cold War.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Consumer Decisions and Fraud Awareness

Smart buying and staying safe from scams. Learners compare unit prices, recognize marketing tactics designed to speed up spending, calculate the yearly cost of subscriptions, read key contract terms, and learn the common patterns of scams (phishing, impostors, advance-fee and prize scams) and their red flags: pressure, secrecy and unusual payment methods. They practise a safe response: stop, verify through official channels, tell a trusted adult, and report.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Risk, Insurance and Diversification Concepts

Life involves risks: accidents, illness, lost property and investments that fall in value. Learners calculate expected loss, compare strategies for managing risk (avoid, reduce, keep, transfer), see how insurance pools risk, work out costs under a fictional health plan (premium, deductible, copay, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum), and explore why diversification and time horizon matter when investing. Everything is fictional and conceptual; no insurance or investment advice is given.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Civil Rights, Institutions and Contemporary Civic Issues

Learners study how the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s used courts, nonviolent protest and voter registration to dismantle legal segregation, and how courts, Congress, presidents and states responded. They meet the farm workers', women's and disability rights movements, then learn a careful, non-partisan method for analyzing a civic issue using a fictional town's decision.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 115 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

Independent History and Civic Inquiry Capstone

Learners carry out a full inquiry from compelling question to informed action. They build supporting questions, gather and evaluate sources from the year's courses and beyond, develop claims and counterclaims, write an evidence-based argument, and design a lawful, realistic civic action plan, without being told which side to take.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 135 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 8

A Financial Decision-Making Project

The elective's capstone. Learners work through a fictional household's year: Carmen and her brother Luis share an apartment and must balance their budget, build an emergency fund, decide how to finance a used car, and choose between two health plans. They calculate each piece, state their assumptions, weigh trade-offs, and write a recommendation memo that presents options fairly. Everything is fictional; nothing is personal financial advice.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 150 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Historical Inquiry and Source Criticism

Before studying world history to 1500, learners examine how we know about the distant past at all. They trace how ancient texts survived through copying and translation, test Herodotus's famous numbers for the Persian invasion against logistics and other evidence, search the record for the voices of workers, women and the enslaved, and evaluate period labels such as 'the Middle Ages' as arguments rather than facts.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Early Societies and Human Environments

Learners examine the two-way relationship between early societies and their environments. They evaluate competing explanations for where farming and states arose, analyze reconstructed data on irrigation and soil salt in Mesopotamia, read climate 'proxy' evidence, and weigh multicausal theories of crisis such as the Late Bronze Age collapse, ending with an argument that avoids both environmental determinism and ignoring the environment.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

States, Empires and Institutions

How do a few rulers govern millions of people across huge distances? Learners build a 'toolkit of empire' (administration, law, infrastructure, armies, legitimacy, revenue and cultural policy) and use it to compare Achaemenid Persia, Rome, Han China, the Maurya, the Inca and Mali. They source an emperor's own account of his achievements and argue why some empires lasted longer than others.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Belief Systems and Intellectual Traditions

Learners study the origins, core teachings and spread of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the intellectual traditions of Greek philosophy and medieval Islamic, Indian and Chinese scholarship. They read short public-domain texts, examine how traditions adapted as they spread, and compare ethical teachings across traditions, always describing beliefs accurately and respectfully.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Exchange Networks and Cultural Connections

Learners analyze Afro-Eurasian exchange from about 600 to 1450 CE as a system of connected networks. They compare the Silk Roads, Indian Ocean, trans-Saharan and Mediterranean networks, trace the diffusion of paper, gunpowder, crops and numerals, treat the Black Death as a network event, and evaluate the famous travel accounts of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta before arguing how 'connected' this world really was.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions
Free starter

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Power, Conflict and Change

Learners analyze three great conflicts of 1000–1500: the Mongol conquests and the empire they built, the Crusades seen from Latin, Byzantine, Muslim and Jewish perspectives, and the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453. They use the concepts of change and continuity to judge what conflict destroyed, what it preserved and what new connections it created.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 125 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

Compare Perspectives across World Regions

The same events looked very different depending on who described them. Learners study positionality, compare four accounts of the Mongol conquests (a Persian official in Mongol service, an Arab historian, the Mongols' own Secret History and a European friar), weigh oral tradition against written accounts in the story of Sundiata and Mali, and build a multi-perspective account that names the voices still missing.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 120 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions

History, Civics & Social Studies · Grade 9

A World History Research Investigation

In this research course, learners design and carry out an investigation on a world history topic before 1500. They refine a researchable question, search for and evaluate scholarship, write annotated bibliography entries, map how historians have interpreted the topic, build a thesis and outline, and write a cited research essay with counterargument.

  • 4 lessons
  • About 140 min
  • Quiz: 9 questions