The world has changed a lot since 1200. In this course, you’ve encountered trends such as increasing political rights, growing systems of production and distribution, and faster and more sustained networks of communication. But while these revolutions have created vast wealth and opportunity, they also allowed only limited change for some, and caused suffering for many. The increased interconnectedness of the world (globalization) allows us to see how we all share similarities, but it also presents the dangers of increasing differences among communities and the inequality between them.

This video introduces you to globalization and restates the trends of the course through this framework. Because the problem for this unit focuses on similarities and differences in human experiences in the last half-century or so, this introduction raises the question of what the costs and benefits of globalization have been. In doing this, it gives you some evidence in the form of global patterns of economic inequality and a case study from Detroit.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. How has the world “globalized”, according to this video?
2. What does it mean to argue that globalization is “flattening”?
3. By contrast, what does it mean to argue that globalization is “lumpy”?
4. Does the global economic data from the last 50 to 100 years presented in the video support the idea that the world is becoming more equal, or less equal?
5. How does the history of Detroit show us both the advantages and disadvantages of globalization?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Think about the full history presented in this video. Which of the trends from the early units of the course are still important in our world today? Have these trends changed or stayed the same? Explain your reasoning.

Globalization is an important part of this whole class, but it really intensified in the past 70 years or so. The end of empires and the fall of the Soviet Union didn’t stop historical change. But the era that followed has been dominated by globalization, which brings into focus many of the long-term trends studied in this course. The spread and limits of citizenship, rights, and a sense of personal identity, is one big question facing us all. So are problems in our global system of production and distribution, which seems to be increasingly unsustainable and unequal. This is particularly true for how global production and distribution has affected our shared environment. All of this brings history to the present, where we must deal with these legacies to prepare for our futures.

This overview introduces you to Unit 9, the final unit in this course. The article examines the era of intense globalization that has typified our world since the Second World War. It does so through four themes: rights, identity, economy, and environment. In this article you’ll explore some of the ways we can view these four themes through our three course frames. You’ll also think about what this recent history means for you, and the community in which you live!

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads Worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How and when did the decolonization and Cold War stories of the last unit end?
2. When did globalization “begin”, according to the author? What does it mean to call the era after the Second World War to today an era of “intense globalization”?
3. According to the author, how did the end of the Cold War change our global economic system?
4. How does the author argue that our increased connection and exchange has caused a backlash in our shared identities?
5. What changes to the environment has globalization helped to promote?

Evaluating and Corroborating

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. What issues raised in this article seem most important to you? Why?
2. At this point, would you argue that globalization has been a positive or negative trend for the human species as a whole? On what evidence?

We are told that the world is becoming increasingly globalized. We are increasingly tied together in a global network that allows us to share information rapidly with each other, and perhaps form one global culture. We have a giant world-wide system of production and distribution. Even our communities are globalizing. But this transformation raises as many issues as it resolves.

The purpose of this video is to help you to filter what you are learning about globalization through the three course frames. Each frame should give you a sense of globalization, and its impact, from a different angle. This information can help you to evaluate the three frame narratives for this unit, as well as providing evidence to understand what the term “globalization” actually means. Addressing the questions that globalization raises is one of the ways that make studying the past meaningful as we work to understand the present and look towards the communities, networks, and products of the future.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. In what ways are we all connected as part of a global network?
2. How can we view globalization through the lens of the production and distribution frame?
3. In what ways are we members of global communities?
4. What are some problems with globalization raised by this video?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. You have been asked to evaluate the impact of globalization. What does each frame contribute to your evaluation? Why is it useful to use more than one frame? Is there a fourth frame, that you can think of, that might be useful as well?
2. How has globalization been important in shaping your present?

This repeated activity should help you become familiar with a process for understanding unfamiliar words anytime you encounter them in the course.

Take out your vocab tracker and be sure to record new and unfamiliar words on it according to your teacher’s instructions.

Understanding vocabulary helps you access course content, become a better reader, and a better communicator. This word wall activity will help you begin to learn some of the key vocabulary from Unit 9.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 9 vocabulary.

Your teacher will assign a vocab card to each of you. Once you get yours, take a few minutes to look it up in the Unit 9 Vocab Guide and then examine the unit itself (click around and quickly skim the content) to see where in the unit your word might be most applicable. Then, add as many antonyms to your card for your word as possible. Your teacher will give you a limited amount of time to write antonyms. Then, the people with the most correct antonyms will put their words on the word wall first.

Your teacher may add some fun twists to this assignment, so be sure to listen closely for directions!

Each unit of the WHP course is guided by a Unit Problem. You’re learning a ton of stuff in this and every other unit, and it can be hard to keep track of what’s most important. It would be pretty easy to become obsessed with a detail that, although interesting and a great way to impress people at a party is relatively unimportant. This activity will help you stay focused! You’ll think about the Unit Problems, and then you’ll respond to them in writing. By keeping track of how your thinking changes throughout each unit, you’ll see how much you’re learning as you move through each section of the course.

Use the Unit 9 Problem Notebook Worksheet to respond to the prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

Open these three charts in your internet browser:

• Chart 1 – World Population Growth, 1700–2100: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2019/06/2019-Revision-%E2%80%93-World-Population-Growth-1700-2100.png
• Chart 2 – Population Growth Rate, 1950–2015: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population-growth-rates
• Chart 3 – Population Projection by the UN, 2015–2100: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/un-population-projection-medium-variant

There are a lot of us on this planet—more than ever. We can make educated guesses about how many people there were in the past and how many people there will be in the future, but the further we go in either direction, the less sure we are. While our population continues to increase, the rate of that increase started to slow down in the 1960s. Populations in some parts of the world are shrinking, while in others they are rising. Predicting the future of these trends is incredibly important to the future of our planet and societies. Can data help us?

If your teacher has assigned the Project X final presentation, you will be asked to make a claim about the future and to support your claim with data. This data exploration provides you with an example of what that task might look like. The attached article provides some insights into the sorts of factors that influence population growth. Because it involves making predictions—rather than just recording data about the past—this data exploration might be a little more complicated than others you’ve done. You might want to pay special attention to the attached Data Introduction article, as it will guide you through some of the more complicated stuff.

Your teacher will let you know if there is an overall question to hold in your mind as complete your three reads of the article.

Preview – What Do We Have?

Fill out the Read 1: Preview section of the Three Close Reads for Data worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – What do we know?

For this read, your goal is to understand the “story” the chart is telling by identifying its arguments and evaluating its presentation of data. You will decide what claim or claims this chart is making and what evidence is being used to support those claims. Do you think the data is reliable? Is the chart misleading in any way? By the end of this read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. According to Chart 1 and 2, when did the global population increase at the highest rate?
2. According to Chart 1, if we lower the global growth rate of the human population over the next century, will the global population decline?
3. Why do you think the makers of Chart 1 believe that the global population will continue to grow even if we slow the rate of growth? Do you agree?
4. According to Chart 2, in what regions has the population growth rate decreased the most since 1950? Where has it increased the most?
5. On Chart 2, if you select the Chart button at the bottom, you can see population growth rates as a line graph for individual countries and regions. Try comparing Africa and Europe. What do you notice? Do you agree with the predictions in the chart?
6. According to Chart 3, which three countries had the largest population in 2015? Which will have the largest populations by the year 2100? When compared with the information in Chart 2 on population growth rates, what does this tell you about the relationship between total population and population growth rates?
7. Do you trust the predictions in these charts? Do you think we can reliably predict what populations will look like in 100 years using data about the past? Why or why not?

Making Connections – What Does This Tell Us?

The third read is really about why the chart is important, what it can tell us about the past, and how it can help us think about the future. At the end of this read, respond to the following questions:

1. Why does this chart matter? What do these charts tell us about the future of human communities? What do they tell us about how we produce and consume resources? Can population predictions help us understand anything about global inequality in the future?
2. Using these charts and a chart from a previous data exploration, make a new prediction about how human communities will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the charts supports your prediction? What evidence challenges it?

Understanding and evaluating data is increasingly useful in everyday life. The data explorations and activities you’ve completed in Project X have prepared you for that. But now, we’re asking you to go a step further. It’s time to put all that knowledge to work. In this final presentation, you’ll make a prediction about the future of your topic using the charts and sources you collected in the research activity. This provides you an opportunity to use your data literacy skills to craft an argument rooted in historical context. This final presentation also lets you showcase all the hard work you’ve completed in Project X, and gives you the opportunity to offer a course of action for the future.

By now, you’ve had plenty of practice reading and evaluating data. In this activity, you’ll use your new skills to create a five-minute presentation as the final for Project X. Your teacher will provide you direction on the presentation format.

Here’s the good news: You’ve already done a lot of work on your final project! The data explorations introduced you to a bunch of charts on a wide range of topics. The four activities you completed before this one have given you the tools you’ll need to make your presentation. The two Making Predictions activities prepared you to make and evaluate your own predictions. You selected a topic that is meaningful to you and of world-historical significance. Finally, you conducted research and collected a set of charts and other evidence to support your predictions. You’re ready for this!

Before you begin work on your presentation, carefully review the Final Presentation Checklist to make sure you understand the requirements for the presentation. Your teacher will let you know the schedule for the Final Presentation. Be excited to show off your hard work!