| | Welcome to "American history," also known as "United States history." This will become your favorite course. It has something for everyone: heroes, villains, criminal trials, funny mistakes, competitions, politics, literature, gold, silver, war, and peace. You name it, American history has it. We are going to have some fun in this course. | | Welcome to "American history," also known as "United States history." This will become your favorite course. It has something for everyone: heroes, villains, criminal trials, funny mistakes, competitions, politics, literature, gold, silver, war, and peace. You name it, American history has it. We are going to have some fun in this course. |
| − | We will be using and build the online conservative encyclopedia at [http://www.conservapedia.com Conservapedia] during this course. Please go there and familiarize yourself with it, and obtain a free login ID (click the upper right-hand link there). | + | We will start without a textbook, to encourage students to be more proactive in learning history. If we can find a good textbook or reference source, then we'll distribute it a few weeks into the course. |
| | + | This course will give you the foundation for taking three different College Board exams: the [[CLEP]], the [[AP]], and the [[SAT II]]. The CLEP is a multiple-choice exam that is recognized by thousands of colleges as a way to earn college credit. It costs about $50 and is administered on computers at local colleges, usually once a month. The AP, or Advanced Placement exam, is given only once a year in May at local high schools, and is more expensive. It includes both multiple-choice and essay questions, and is used by different colleges to give credit for courses. The SAT II in American History is an inexpensive multiple-choice exam that takes only an hour and is given at high schools on Saturdays once a month, October through June. No college credit is given for it, but it is used for college applications to recognize achievement. The SAT II is the most biased of the three exams, and is known for emphasizing liberal culture and matters of race and gender. The CLEP exam is probably the least biased on the three. There is no requirement to take any of these exams as part of this course. |
| | The key to learning history is to find what you like and build on that. Learn what you like and then learn everything else that is connected with it. Since everything in history is somehow connected with everyone else, you can learn all of history just by starting with what you like. If you are most interested in religion, then learn about the 13 colonies based on their different attitudes towards religion. If you are most interested in one colony, then learn about it and how it relates to other colonies. If you like military history, then use that as your starting point. | | The key to learning history is to find what you like and build on that. Learn what you like and then learn everything else that is connected with it. Since everything in history is somehow connected with everyone else, you can learn all of history just by starting with what you like. If you are most interested in religion, then learn about the 13 colonies based on their different attitudes towards religion. If you are most interested in one colony, then learn about it and how it relates to other colonies. If you like military history, then use that as your starting point. |