History

Seventh graders explore the history and geography of Los Angeles by becoming the staff of the Los Angeles Museum of Geography (LAMoG). The mission of this museum is to tell the story of Los Angeles, past and present, through innovative exhibits that connect the issues our region and its people have faced to the global challenges of the 21st century. All year long students practice research and writing skills, analyze maps and primary sources and learn from museum professionals about how to approach questions of content and design. Twice a year, the museum holds a gallery opening staffed entirely by 7th grade docents, who offer expert tours to friends, family, and the entire community. Visit the museum website at www.lamog.org.

This course engages United States history and civics thematically, focusing on the enduring ideals of the Revolution, the continuing centrality of the Constitution, the drivers of social reform movements, and the legacy of wartime. Through a media literacy framework, students discuss current events every day, leading to discussions about the United States' role in world affairs as well as its responsibilities at home. The course emphasizes engaged discussion, reflective writing, responsible research, public speaking, and thoughtful reading of primary and secondary sources. Each quarter students dive into an individual or group project that incorporates the global citizenship competencies of recognizing perspectives, investigating the world, communicating ideas, and taking action.

This course is a survey of global history prior to 1500, with a focus on Mediterranean civilizations, Islam, Imperial China, Hinduism, and Pre-Columbian America. The course probes historical events and trends of worldwide importance and highlights essential characteristics of the cultures and civilizations of Europe, Western and Eastern Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Students examine the political, cultural, economic, geographic, religious and philosophical differences, similarities and interactions of the major world regions. One goal is that students gain an appreciation and an acceptance of the diversity as well as the commonality of world cultures. Students are also guided through a step-by-step introduction to the research paper process.

This course is a continuation of World History I, 1500 to the present. In the first three quarters, students tackle one region at a time: Africa, China, India, America, and Europe. Major topics include the rise of nation states, imperialism, the Industrial Revolution, the Enlightenment, and constitutionalism versus absolutism. In the last quarter of the year, students focus on World Wars I and II and the Cold War. Current events regularly appear in class discussions, and speakers with backgrounds in global studies share their experiences with the class.

This honors-level course delves deeply into pivotal moments in modern world history. First semester units include the Spanish conquest of the Americas, medieval African kingdoms and the transatlantic slave trade, the French Revolution, the British Empire in India, and the Mexican Revolution. In the second semester students focus on the Industrial Revolution, the development of modern political ideologies, the world wars, imperial Japan, the Cold War, the emergence of modern China, and the fall of the Soviet Union. Students engage in frequent debates, Harkness discussions, in-depth role plays, current event reports, and analysis of primary sources. Students show their knowledge through objective tests, creative projects involving historical imagination and empathy, as well frequent essays and a culminating research paper. 

This course is a survey of American history from the colonial period to the end of the twentieth century. Through news reports, role plays and debates, students engage actively with the issues that animate American history and trace the many ways that this history continues to shape our world today. Students hone their writing skills through in-class essays and a major research paper; meanwhile, a vibrant culture of daily discussion encourages students to articulate their perspectives on the past and its lessons for the present.

This full-year course is a rigorous survey of American history from the era before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492 to the present. Themes include the environment, American identity, politics, peoples, the economy, and America in world culture. With assignments such as analytical essays, research projects, historical debates and role plays, students learn to understand as well as craft a historical interpretation or argument.

Students who enroll in this course are expected to take the Advanced Placement exam.

This full-year course surveys the global history of art from prehistory to the present. Students examine art as an expression of culture and a medium of cultural critique. Students are particularly encouraged to analyze critically the interaction between works of art and their social, political and cultural context. The course helps students develop the necessary vocabulary and methodologies for the examination of visual media. Students are exposed to art and art history through slides, primary and secondary texts, independent research, oral presentations, and museum visits, including field trips to museums throughout Los Angeles.

Students who enroll in this course are expected to take the Advanced Placement exam.

This semester-long course explores a variety of topics in the areas of macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic theory and contemporary issues. The use of projects, tests, papers and lecture-discussion allows students to engage with economics both intellectually and personally. The final assignment is an economic assessment of a company of the student’s choosing.

“What is the good life?” Relevant to all people in all times, this question lies at the heart of the course. Diverse voices and perspectives contribute to this conversation-based class. Writers of the head (Plato, Aristotle, John Stuart Mill), the heart (Leo Tolstoy, Immanuel Kant, Henry David Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Martin Luther King, W.E.B. Du Bois), fate (Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud), and choice (William Shakespeare, George Bernard Shaw), offer multiple points of view. Course expectations include participation in discussion and one paper each quarter.

This semester course introduces the study of the international world, with a focus on structure, systems, and strategies. Themes include nationalism and the formation of national identity, state violence and war, immigration, imperialism, colonialism and post colonialism, cultural relativism, human rights, and modernization. Students will learn to perform research and analysis through writing and thinking about events in world politics from different perspectives, including realism, liberalism, feminism, Marxism, and constructivism. Readings are drawn from historic and contemporary scholars, and assignments are a mixture of analysis, research, experimental learning, and group work. Projects test the skills learned in each unit and are based on topics that are current in world politics, such as democratic backsliding, United States policy toward Ukraine, security concerns in Asia, climate migration, Middle Eastern power struggles, and more. 

This course focuses on the geographical, political, social, religious and trade conflicts in a variety of borders around the world, including the open and closed border debate in the United States, the EU-Hungarian, German, and Bulgarian refugee situation, trade borders and the power of globalization in China, transnational conflict after the Arab Spring in Northern Africa and the Middle East, and the forced ethnic and religious border issues caused by the breakup of Yugoslavia. Each unit also incorporates documentaries or films to visually support the discussions, and the course has one outreach project focusing on the United States-Mexico border question. The course challenges students to ask critical questions about sovereignty, power, citizenship, violence and human rights.

This full-year, 1/2-unit course is designed to introduce students to the world of investments. Students learn how to research and evaluate companies and industries. They make real investment recommendations and decisions based upon original research. The course particularly emphasizes online research and public speaking skills.

This full-year, 1/2-unit course gives students a view of psychology as a scientific discipline, with applications in Prep’s peer counseling program. The course presents a comprehensive look at widely varying psychological theories and methods of therapy, with emphasis on the terminology of the psychologist. The course work focuses on the principles of social psychology, with applications made to real-life settings. All students serve as mentors to incoming 7th and 9th grade students and participate in a capstone project with AP Statistics students to design, execute, and analyze psychology experiments.

This full-year course gives students an overview of important facts and concepts in U.S. government and politics. Topics include the Constitution, federalism, political behavior, political parties, interest groups, the media, public policy and the three branches of government, with daily discussions of national political news serving as examples of the concepts studied. Landmark Supreme Court cases in the area of civil rights and civil liberties are the basis for written and oral arguments. Students will also study criminal law and procedure and engage in a mock trial.

Students who enroll in this course are expected to take the Advanced Placement exam.