Social Studies
October 9-October 15, 2013

Find the latest social studies resources from Iowa Public Television.

A Hurried Escape
Grades: 9-12

In this video segment from the PBS series Finding Your Roots, Professor Henry Louis Gates reveals to Margaret Cho why her father's family fled what is now North Korea. Cho's grandfather worked for the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. After the Japanese withdrew from Korea after World War II, Cho's grandfather was considered a traitor. To ensure the safety of his family, Cho's grandfather and his family left their home in North Korea and moved to South Korea.

Ma Family History
Grade Range: 2-12

In this video segment from Faces of America, musician Yo-Yo Ma learns about his ancestors in China. Historian Henry Louis Gates, Jr. also travels to China to meet with Yo-Yo Ma's distant relatives to talk about the Ma family history and more specifically, how it has been preserved in traditional Chinese texts. Gates articulates the details surrounding these texts and describes information Ma's ancestors felt necessary to preserve, such as essays, linage rules, moral guidelines, poems and short biographies.

Abraham Lincoln, Attorney at Law
Grade Range: 1-12

In this video segment excerpted from the PBS series Looking for Lincoln, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin examine Lincoln's years as a "prairie" lawyer on the Illinois circuit, and discuss how they honed and polished Lincoln's confidence, sense of fairness, and social skills.

Teen Fights for Toxic Waste Cleanup
Grade Range: 9-12

In this video adapted from Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative, New York student Shadia Wood tells how she became an environmental activist. Wood lives near several toxic waste sites and was concerned to learn that the New York Superfund-the money set aside for cleaning such sites in her state-had gone bankrupt. Working with other students and environmental groups, Wood lobbied the New York legislature for eight years until the Superfund program was refinanced. Environmentalist Laura Haight says that this law was the most important environmental law passed in New York State in a decade.

Getting an Education
Grade Range: 6-12

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, uses reenactment footage to chronicle the education of Percy Julian, the African American chemist who pioneered the development of synthetic hormones. Julian's early educational years paralleled an educational movement that prepared African Americans for industrial jobs, the growing white supremacist movement, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Julian would eventually move north, and finally to Europe to earn his Ph.D.

Immigration Debate
Grade Range: 6-12

Stacey Delikat reports from Arizona about their 2010 immigration law and the national debate that has ensued because of it.

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