What is Social Studies?

Social Studies began as a subject mainly focused on memorization of facts. Now, social studies is a body of integrative knowledge, concepts, skills, generalizations and theories in the Social Studies fields. Social Studies has multiple elements. Social Studies is powerful if it is:

Meaningful: Engaging, connects students with real-world situations.
Integrative: Draws on more than one discipline, subject or skill set.
Value-based: Strengthens students' sense of democratic values and social responsibility.
Challenging: Incorporates different perspectives and draws on students' critical-thinking skills. 
Active: Participatory, makes use of manipulatives or physical environment.

These elements may be linked to Social Studies but can also be applied to any other field in education.

Surprising!
Check out the image below to see what percentage student retain in memory after reading, listening, discussing, etc.


















It is so important to not only present Social Studies to students, but to make sure students become architects, historians, archaeologists, etc. Students learn better when they are immersed in a subject fully. Facts do not explain everything, facts only name things and can easily be forgotten, so it is very important to understand the concept so students can understand how the facts apply. Now if students can understand concepts, students can combine those concepts and begin to make generalizations or theories and make statements of what they have learned. Generalizations can lead to meta-cognition. Meta-cognition is "learning about learning" and "thinking about thinking". In general, meta-cognition is the ability to apply what you have learned and combine generalizations, concepts, and facts to become a better learner.

"Social Studies should not just be "hands on" it should also be "minds on""
-Dr. Smirnova