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The seventh grade pilot course, MAN AND SOCIETY, part of the University of Minnesota's K-12 Project Social Studies (PSS) curriculum,
was one of several Project Social Studies curricula funded around the United States as a result of the National Education
Defense Act of 1958 (US Office of Education - Project No. HS - 045). Curricular revision at the K-12 level was thought, at
the time, to be important to improving the competitive edge of the United States during the Cold War. Judith Preissle (then
Kasper) was selected to lead a group of 5 teachers at Grass Junior High School in West St. Paul, Minnesotabe in implementing
this curriculum in the seventh grade. The curriculum aimed to introduce students to major concepts in anthropology and sociology
and introduced students to the concept of relating human biological structure to social behaviour.
This collection contains the social studies curriculum, overhead projector images, hand written notes, and other documentation
of its facilitation. Throughout the documents are many handwritten notes and marginalia entered by Dr. Priessle. These notes
represent commentaries on preparation for class, as well as notes taken after the materials were used with students in the
classroom.
These materials are important because they sho what kinds of experimental social studies curricula were being developed in
the late 1960s and early 1970s. They will be of interest to educational historians, social studies education scholars, and
anyone doing historical research on diversity and advocacy work in K-12 schools. These materials may also be relevant to
anthropologists and sociologists studying how ideas from their disciplines are used within K-12 school curriculum.
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