The focus for this nine weeks will be on early Texas history. From the Native Americans that first settled Texas to the pioneers of the 15th-18th centuries, early Texan culture influences the world around us in ways we may not always recognize.
During the first stages of this unit our students will focus on Native American tribes, and events and individuals of significance that lead up to the colonization of Texas. We will then use these concepts to make comparisons to the world we live in now.

The students will create a one to two page brochure using Microsoft Publisher that incorporates various topics that demonstrate connections from past to present. This project at the end of the quarter in Texas History.

English’s beginnings require a foundation in the format of short stories. Students will “connect” plot curves and the elements of literature—foundations of literature—to stories from the literature text and then to their own life stories, concluding with a composition for each of them that shows or tells the lesson learned from solving a particular personal problem. The finished product will be a submission for his/her final newspaper page(s).

Social studies students will come to understand that by ignoring history, we tend to overlook its significance. Students will first connect the importance of the geography of Texas to its colonization. This information will be used to create a timeline that measures progress in various industries (e.g., oil, cotton, ranching, government defense). The final product will be incorporated into the final project.

Students will incorporate knowledge of number sense, order of operations and the relationships between fractions, decimals and percents to compile experimental and historical data they receive from other classes. Results will be communicated in various graphic forms.

In science students will illustrate and compare through various classroom activities how simple machines of the past relate to today. Students will identify each type of simple machine, calculate work done by the machine and explain how this information can be used to accomplish a given task in the past.

In technology class we are going to evaluate the development of communication technology. In class, we'll discuss the methods early Texans used to communicate and distribute information. The students will be asked to develop a small piece that compares one early mode of communication to what we use today as it relates to either mass media or private communication.