SUBJECT: DISCIPLINES AND IDEAS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
DAY 1
Motivation:
Let the students think of an object that best represents them and share it to the class with their explanation.
- Who I am in the eyes of other people? How I want other people to see me?
Q1: What do you have in mind when you heard OF Social Science?
Q2: What I the relevance of the previous activity to our lesson today?
Discussion:
Social Sciences
- Are all academic disciplines which deal with the man in their social context.
- A science which deals with human behavior in its social and cultural aspects.
- The scientific study of human society and social relationships.
- A major category of academic disciplines concerned with society and the relationships among individuals
within a society.
Q3: What different behaviors have you noticed in the community?
Discussion:
The social science is a broad designation used to refer to the academic disciplines of history, government/civics,
economics, political science, sociology, and other areas. Basically, the term refers to areas of human/social
interactions. Within the social sciences there are some foundational concepts that guide us as we examine them.
Race, gender, class, culture, technology and other concepts are relevant to all the social sciences disciplines and
exert tremendous influence on the ''movement'' or activity within these disciplines. For example, issues surrounding
race were a major reason for the outbreak of the American Civil War, and class conflict led directly to the French
Revolution and the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Race refers to a group of people sharing a common genetic or hereditary background. African-American,
white/Caucasian, Asian, and Hispanic are common race categories. These can be broken down further into
categories which relate to geographic origin such as Chinese, Japanese, German, etc. Racial conflict has existed
since the beginning of time, and racial dynamics exert a profound impact on human societies. Think about the
Holocaust during the World War II era. Ethnic Germans believed they were superior to those of the Jewish race and
other minorities, and as a result, attempted to eliminate European Jewry.
This image captures the diversity of race.
Gender refers to a person being male or female. Issues of gender are studied extensively in sociology, and gender
profoundly impacts the flow of history. Think about the Women's Suffrage Movement in the early 20th century.
Women were tired of being denied the right to vote just because of their gender, so they banded together, protested,
and eventually secured equal voting rights.
Class is a socio-economic category, referring to one's social and economic position in society. Today, many of us in
the United States are middle class: we're not insanely wealthy, but not extremely poor - we're in the middle.
Peasants, serfs, Lords, and nobles were common class categories throughout history. In modern European history,
bourgeoisie and proletariat are two well-known classes. The bourgeoisie are middle-to-upper class, educated
people who own factories and the ''means of production'', while the proletariat are the poor, laboring class. The
French Revolution and the Russian Revolution of 1917 were the result of class conflict. Some historians have even
argued the American Revolution stemmed from class conflict.
Culture refers to the way of life of a particular group of people. Chinese culture is very different from Mexican
culture. Each culture has its own unique social norms, styles of art, music, and other distinct patterns. American
culture is a blend of many other cultures. That is why America is sometimes referred to as a ''melting pot''. Interests
in football, firearms, rock and roll music are just a few of the many aspects of American culture.
Cultures differ dramatically from group to group.
Activity:
Ask the students to choose a partner and make a slogan showing the relation of Social Science in the community.
Q4: As a senior high school learner how do you use the social science in your daily living?
Q5: How do you define Social Science as study of society?
Synthesis:
The learners will complete the sentence: Social Science is ____________________________.
DAY 2
