Enroll in Social Issues with Dolphin STEM Academy

Course Overview

Social issues affect everyone—they are issues which revolve around governmental policy and
enforcement of laws on the civilian population. These laws and policies can have any number of
significant outcomes. They can protect minorities and women from discrimination, regulate drug
use, give aid to the poor, provide guidelines for education, and much more. Social issues are
often controversial and debated, so having the ability to form an educated opinion on them is an
important part of your citizenship.

Course Goals

By the end of this course, you will be able to do the following:
Demonstrate an understanding of media, including its purpose and formats.
Explain the roles of the three branches of the federal government.
Discuss the importance of civil liberties and how they differ from civil rights.
Summarize trends in the crime rate and explain various approaches to punishment.
Describe the Supreme Court’s historical interpretation of the right to bear arms.
Define the terms poverty, poverty threshold, and poverty rate.
Identify the source of the modern welfare system.
Identify race as a social construction and explain theories of prejudice.
List and explain six pieces of legislation that came with the civil rights movement.
Explain the link between abolition and the women’s movement.
List three female activists who led the women’s suffrage movement.
Summarize the events of the gay rights movement.
Explain the organizational structure of the American school system.
Explain the impact of the Industrial Revolution and immigration on education.
Identify two important court cases in establishing the legalization of abortion and the right to privacy.
Explain the term culture of life.
Identify two cases that contributed to the public’s perception of euthanasia and the right to die.
List key legislation on stem cell research, including the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003.