Social Studies Education

While young children are avid observers and questioners of their world, adults often shut down or postpone conversations on complicated topics. Research shows that talking about issues like race and gender from the age of two not only helps children understand what they see, but also increases self-awareness, self-esteem, and allows them to recognize and confront things that are unfair, like discrimination and prejudice. This first book in the series begins the conversation on race, with a supportive approach that considers both the child and the adult.

Beginning with America’s first newspaper, investigative reporting has provided journalism with its most significant achievements and challenging controversies. In The Evolution of American Investigative Journalism, James L. Aucoin provides listeners with the first comprehensive history of investigative journalism.

From Gold Star father and beloved Democratic National Convention speaker Khizr Khan comes a book for young people about the Constitution - what it says and why it matters for everyone. Our Founding Fathers created the US Constitution and Bill of Rights as a blueprint for American government and the rights of American citizens. This document is not merely a piece of parchment but a living, breathing promise of our deepest democratic values.

This fun and surprising book goes beyond words and lets numbers tell the story! Fascinating facts about US presidential elections take a new twist and are explained by the numbers.

A suburban Boston school unwittingly started a firestorm of controversy over a sixth-grade field trip. The class was visiting a mosque to learn about world religions when a handful of boys, unnoticed by their teachers, joined the line of worshippers and acted out the motions of the Muslim call to prayer. A video of the prayer went viral with the title "Wellesley, Massachusetts Public School Students Learn to Pray to Allah". Charges flew that the school exposed the children to Muslims who intended to convert American schoolchildren.

Did you ever think about where your jeans come from? How about the people who made your T-shirt, or what happens to the clothes you grow out of when you're done wearing them? The fabrics clothes are made of, the way they are designed and sewn and shipped around the world, and the way we consume them and get rid of them - every step in this process has a big impact on our environment, on the people who work in clothing factories, and on our cultures.

Veterinarians care for all kinds of animals. Listeners will find out the tools vets use, the different types of veterinarians, and how people get this caring and exciting job.

How would you like to be given a new identity to live by and then removed from your sisters and brothers—never to be legally permitted to contact them again—even upon your deathbed? This is just one of many examples of red tape adoptees are forced to contend with. This book reveals the making of the current child welfare system. The pioneers who built and profited from the industry continue to deny adoptees access to documents that could lead them back to their families. This book protects you against adoption profiteers and traffickers who profess God is on their side.

How does the president get his job? How do people know who will win an election before everybody’s voted? Do the candidates hate each other? Dan Gutman takes on his strangest subject ever: the American political system. Reaching through history from the days of the founding fathers to today’s voting system, Gutman tackles complex subjects in a clear, easy-to-understand way. Even grown-ups will find something in here that they’ve never learned before.

Reason is a powerful tool not only for finding our way in an increasingly complex world but also for growing intellectually and emotionally. This short, accessible volume unlocks the dynamics of human reason, helping listeners to think critically and to use reason confidently to solve problems. It enables listeners to think more clearly and precisely about the world, and it tackles a number of profound philosophical questions without getting bogged down with jargon. Topics include knowledge, identity, leadership, creativity, and empathy.

Japanese mythology offers a fascinating lens from which to gaze upon the natural world. Through tales of heroic samurai, creepy vengeful ghosts, and deities that wield the mighty powers of nature, these stories and mythical figures emphasize the importance of humans living harmoniously with their surroundings. It is often said that in order to understand a country’s culture and history, one needs to simply look at the stories they tell about the world around them.

Schools have long meant more than an education in America. Flawed, inequitable, underfunded, and segregated, they remain the most important engine of social mobility and the crucible of our democracy. The cost of closing them for so long during COVID, made with good intentions, has not been fully reckoned with. In The Stolen Year, Anya Kamenetz follows families across the country through the pandemic. She dives deep into the history that brought us to this point, making the case that 2020 wasn't a lost year—it was taken from our children by years of neglect and bad faith.

Fascinating facts and first-person accounts highlight some of the most interesting jobs that take place behind the scenes in professional sports. Get a glimpse at what it takes to make it as a coach, team physician, sportscaster, and more and find out what goes on behind the glamour.

Learn about street sweepers.

Visit a fire station, including descriptions of the people and things found there.

Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then 10. Then a hundred. The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change.

What do taxes, jury duty, and being good citizens have to do with helping our government? Using engaging, age-appropriate language, listeners understand our responsibilities as American citizens and learn how to take active roles in our government. Fully translated Spanish text.

Welcome to Ontology: The Science of Being, from AudioLearn. We will introduce and define the subject of Ontology within metaphysics; discuss major areas of the study, defining existence, substance, universals, and others; and then look at the deep challenges to how these concepts had been answered in traditional ontology.

You need to hear the bad news first: the results of STEM outreach to girls haven’t improved in twenty years. The good news? This book will tell you why, and how to fix it. Currently, dated narratives push girls away in fear, and blind spots result in missed opportunities to pull them in. While efforts to increase diversity in science and mathematics have succeeded, outreach has largely ignored engineering—where there is still only one woman for every five men. This is especially troubling because engineering offers vastly more jobs than other STEM fields.

Firefighters are the heroes we need in times of emergency. Listeners will learn all the roles firefighters have, the tools they use, and how people get this exciting, fast-paced job.