The Social Studies Department includes the major disciplines of history and geography and covers government and leadership, global studies and law. Through the humanities curriculum, each student develops thinking, writing, speaking, listening, and reading skills, and learns how to articulate, modify, and defend a position by learning and analysing a defined body of content. Additionally, the student learns about the physical world in a geographical context.
The development of skills and attitudes – the learning process – plays as important a role in the education of each student as the acquisition of content. Each student needs to acquire a basis of knowledge before he or she can communicate ideas effectively or think critically. The knowledge explosion and the increasingly sophisticated means whereby students can readily gain access to information, however, suggest that students must be equipped with appropriate skills and attitudes to evaluate a bewildering array of choices. Thus, in class, students are presented with a varied set of learning activities which may include full class and small group discussions, note-taking from lectures and texts, library research using print materials and the Internet, video, field studies, achievement tests, guest speakers, formal oral presentations and debates.
As a result, each student will be introduced to aspects of Canada's history and geography in Grades 9-11. In addition, Canada's multi-cultural character is reflected by an examination of its European roots, the influence of the United States, and its future with the Pacific Rim nations.
An integral part of all Social Studies courses is a weekly review of current events in BC, Canada, North America and the world to remind students of the global issues beyond the school gates. All students are encouraged to listen to a news broadcast daily and to read the newspapers and journals available in the residences and the school library.
