Students examine the role of commerce in the United States to help fulfill Manifest Destiny. They write commercials that could have been used by the Mexicans or Americans during the Mexican War.

Students analyze selected pieces of art and infer how they reflect a sense of disillusionment, and/or cynicism in American society in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal. Then they identify and place cultural attitudes...

Eighth graders read standard road maps and topographical maps, and examine the lives of pathfinders who opened the trails to the West. They develop Living History presentations, role-playing a character from the past.