The Class Before the Last, Big Test

Today, in social studies class, we had simply put are minds together into one and discussed about the test and all the events that led up to the Civil War. We had an interesting class as Mr. Armstrong visually demonstrated the Dred Scott Case. He had Joshua Kim as Dred Scott and visually let the class see what the Dred Scott Case was about. These kind of visual acts help students really learn and understand what the actual meaning is. We had covered the elections of 1860 which was the last event that pushed the nation finally into war. Furthermore, Mr. Armstrong had the 4 pods to discuss what they did not get and sometimes asked us deep questions. One question was ,"How does the idea of popular sovereignty contradicts the Dred Scott case?" This was really a tough question and I commed Rebecca Lee for answering it thoroughly and thoughtfully. She had really thought deeply and this made the class understand the whole contradiction right there. Therefore, today was a simple gathering of our class with Mr. Armstrong for a last "discussion" and "visual explanation".

By Albert C. 8D

Seminar on Sectionalism Imersion part II

Today in class, the 8D class directed their focus to the topic covered in the sectionalism imersion part two. The key terms studied today include: popular soverignity, secede, compromise of 1850, and fugitive slave act. The class format today was basically a seminar format, where the students sit as a group and express comments and questions that are relative to the topic directed by Mr. Armstrong. During the discussion today, almost everybody participated very well, sharing their knowledge with the rest of the class to enhance our understanding about the imersion. What was really interesting about today's class discussion was the fact that some of the discussions really connected the American history to our modern world right now. For instance, we had a little discussion of whether popular soverignity, democracy, was good or bad. This was a exceptionally difficult question, because the students knew that what ever the outcome is, there was always going to be positive and negative impacts of the decision. We also talked about the morality side of slavery, when we were discussing the fugitive slave act, which specifically stated that northerns were required to send back the escaped slaves. By the intelligent conversations that went on during the whole seminar, it is pretty certain that the majority of the students had enhanced their understanding of the key terms and main ideas that were presented to them as a part of the sectionalism imersion part two.
-written by Lisa A.

Bleeding Kansas

At the beginning of class, 2 questions were assigned to us:"What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act and how did they contradict the Missouri Compromise?" and "Identify how antislavery and proslavery supporters reacted to the Kansas-Nebraska Act." Then Mr.Armstrong showed us how people of the south and north saw and thought about things such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the fugitive slave law. By doing this most people got a clearer understanding of how the people felt at that time. (And it was more enjoyable.) We then went in depth about how bleeding Kansas all started with the construction of a railroad in Chicago and how Stephan A. Douglas made the Act to get votes from the south to do so. However, since whether a state would become a slave state or a no-slave state all depended on the people, many southerners and northerners began to move there. So when it became voting time, only about 20 out of 600 people were actually legal residents. However, the southerners won and it became a slave state, wich angered the north so they built another government, ignoring the one already existing. So Kansas had two different governments. The results of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was two opposing goverments in one state, illegal voting, Pattawatomie (John Brown), Preston Brooks beating Sumner with a cane, and the attack on Lawrence. At the end of class, i had a clearer understanding of the conflict between the south and the north.
- Jiwon C. 8D

Destiny and Expansionof America

The class 8B had social study as their last period. They were all worn out from P.E. but they tried their best to learn all they could.

Today in class we talked about destiny, having an example about eight ball. Our class had a very enjoyable time withe the eight ball since we got to put the questions that we wanted to. My classmate, Billy Park, had a question to ask. It was if he would get into Princeton and the ball said absolutely. This had a relation about what we were learning since we talked about manifest destiny. Manifest destiny was about American spreading their ways of living since they thought they were chosen by God.

Also in class we learned about how part of Mexico and Texas became United States. Mexico seperated from Spain, like America seperated from Great Britain. Mexicans wanted people to live on their land since they might get it taken away. Lots of Americans came to live in the lands, but they wanted to use slaves which was against Mexico's rules. So Americans stood up and fought for their liberty to have slaves. The American won and they got their lands. When the Mexico stricked once more, still the Americans won. But the Americans who were seperated wanted to be accepted to be an offical state since they might get attacked again. Which is the state of Texas right now. The American government refused at first since they did not want a war with Mexico and have issues about which side the state would be going into, slavery or free. Later, America and Mexico had a war, America won and they wrote a treaty saying that America would pay for the debt of Texas when it was independent. America accepted Texas. Which meant America has expanded their territory

When we had 20minutes of class left over, we had time to work on our next immersion. The "Debate over Slavery."

Britney B. 8B

Sectionalism: Who Gains the Advantage? North or South?

Social studies was 8B's first class of the first regular school day this week. As soon as I walked in, I noticed that the arrangement of the desks was still in a big rectangle. I wondered why and when class started my question was answered.
We were still doing our seminar that started on Monday, the half day. The topics were mainly of the Missouri Compromise and the Tariff of 1832, how this affected the North, South and Great Britain and who gained the upper hand because of these events. A lot of students still did not understand the aftermath of the Missouri Compromise and student Britney Byun lead the class to a more clarifying understanding of it by asking a question that most of us were thinking.
Then, the class discussed about who got the advantage of the Missouri Compromise. The class voted 10 for the South and 7 for the North. The people who voted for South supported their argument by saying that while Maine entered as a free state, balancing the number of slave states and free states, Missouri was a much larger state and therefore had more economic chances. However, Mr. Armstrong pointed out that the North's political power was
higher than the South's. If only Missouri entered the Union, the North and South's political power would be balanced, but since Maine had also joined, the power still stayed the same and North still had the upper hand. Overall, it resulted that the Missouri Compromise had given an upper hand to the North side by letting it keep its power politic wise.
Halfway through the class, Mr. Armstrong told the class to get into groups of 3~4 and create a short skit that would help the class understand the Tariff of 1832. For five minutes, each of the four groups worked on doing that and afterwards, two groups presented what they had been practicing. The first group (Eric, Harry, Andy, Billy) explained the fall of the South and Great Britain's relationship due to the Tariff of 1832 and the second group (Yoona, Deborah, Soyon, Jenny, Hee Jae) emphasized how much the South disliked the tariffs placed on the imports.
By the end of the class, I have got all of my questions answered clearly and I understood everything much better and think that the other peers of my class felt the same way.

Yoona Cha 8B

Economy or Morality??

Does economy trump over morality? Or does morality trump economy? This was the question of the day that stumped all of us in seminar and made us realize how problematic the entrance of Missouri as a slave state, and the controversy of the expansion of slavery that it brought, was.

To better understand the whole conflict, we first discussed about why the Missouri Compromise was so significant at that time. Before in the Senate, there were an equal amount of representatives from the South and from the North, but if the Missouri Compromise was put into action this would mean that Southern representatives would outnumber the Northern representatives and break the checks-and-balances within the Congress. This would lead the Southern states to have a greater amount of power and influence in their grasp when creating laws and policies. Therefore, in order to protect the power of the free states, the House of Representatives passed a special amendment which stated that Missouri would be accepted as a slave state, but it would be illegal to import enslaved Africans to Missouri and also mentioned that the children of Missouri slaves would be set free. Putting an end to the import of slaves in the South would lead to an end in the increase of population there, which would work as a disadvantage towards the South because the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was decided according to the population of a state. However, this amendment was rejected by the Senate. Later, Henry Clayton convinced Congress to agree to the Missouri Compromise, which stated that Missouri would enter the Union as a slave state and Maine would join as a free state, and that slavery would be prohibited in new territories formed in Missouri’s southern border.

The topic of the Missouri Compromise brought us to our main question: “Although the Missouri Compromise was a success, it brought an expansion to slavery, which is something morally wrong, however it would be impossible to put an end to it. Slaves are a necessity for the production of agricultural goods in the Southern states, hence its economy, so which one is of more value? Economy or morality?" All of us voted and 15 of us said that the economy was more significant than morality, but after discussing how the Missouri Compromise, which was supporting slavery, was going against the idea that all men are created equal, stated in the Constitution, some of us changed our minds and agreed that morality was more valuable. Then, a very interesting idea was presented to the class by Eric Kim. With great confidence he explained to us that if slavery was still going on today, great rappers like Snoop Dog or 50 cent would not exist and that they would be living their lives just as miserable slaves.

Due to a lack of time, we couldn't continue on our intriguing discussion, however, by the end of the class, I think most of us fully grasped how this sticky situation between the North and the South caused a major tension and problem between the two, eventually becoming one of the factors that lead to the Civil War.

- Hee Jae C. 8B

Nationalism and Innovation

In class today, Mr. Armstrong started the class by explaning the importance of the roads, canals, and steamboats in economy. He drew pictures that showed the Cumberland Road, Erie Canal, and how these affected America back then. After that, we discussed about the Industrial Revolution. For homework, we were supposed to read about the Industrial Revolution and how the important inventions affected the textile business significantly, starting the Industrial Revolution. Brian Kwon started the discussion by answering Mr.Armstrong's question. He said that the large spinning machine called water frame was invented by a man called Richard Arkwright.This was first invented in Great Britain and was kept secret, severly affecting Great Britain's economy. Then Mr.Armstrong showed us a picture of the machine and asked us how it worked by looking at the picture. Few people volunteered to guess how it worked but they did not get it right. While the classmates were thinking, So Yun volunteered to guess and explained how it worked and got it right. Then we talked about a person called Samuel Slater. We have discussed that the invention of the water frame was kept secret but Samuel Slater, who came from Great Britain to America ran a mill at America. This affected the economy of America significantly, being able to compete against Great Britain. At last, we talked about the invention of the cotton gin. At the end of the discussion, Mr.Armstrong explained about the connection between what we discussed today and how this would lead to the Civil War. When we finished discussing about the Industrial Revolution, we had about 30 minutes to start our next immersion, finishing up our class for today.

Junwoo H. 8B

Transportation And Grand Canals

Today as we entered the class room we were assigned to sit in groups at colored tables. We were first briefly discussing some of the key parts of the immersion that would later be in connection of what we needed to do for tonights homework (discussion). Later when Mr. Armstrong opened up a slide show, we talked about random inventions such as the Erie Canal, Cumberland Road, and steamboat, this directly went into play when we started to talk about how transportation and trading was an important part in American economy. This was where a couple of classmates and I were used to demonstrate of how things worked in terms of business and transportation. We showed how one area (ville) could have something so valuable (chocolate), that it attracted other areas of people to buy some as well. This meant that an increase in production would take place, and thus it would influence them to create their own. After the demonstration was over we started to talk about how S. Korea was planning on building their own canal from Seoul all the way to Busan, and how this was in relation to what America did with their invention of the Erie Canal. This was when we were given several handouts such as two news reports and a chart to distinguish the propositions and the oppositions of the construction of one of Korea's largest projects. When we were done listing, we had a water fountain discussion with our table groups to discuss some of the propositions and oppositions we found from both reports. This was where Soyon and Jamie backed our group up with most of the things we were suppose to find. After the discussion we were referenced again with a video from the wiki. The video was helpful because it simply outlined the situation as well as giving interviews to random people who lived around the area of where the canal was going to be built. Towards the end of class we were asked to give our opinions and arguments of which side we were on in another open discussion with our table group. This was where Mr. Armstrong and Soyon had a mini debate as an example.

Ryan H. 8B

Nationalism and Sectionalism

As we entered the class of Social Studies, we were asked to be seated according to our laptop numbers (one-to-one laptops). Luckily, this class awakened us from our Spring Break mode by starting us off with tons of information.


First, we saw a title, Nationalism and Sectionalism in bold letters up on the screen. “What can this title lead us to learning?” I thought. Nationalism…what does that mean? National pride or spirit. Because America had just won the War of 1812, Americans felt strong patriotism about their country since they’ve won against Great Britain. As a result to the war and their victory, Americans are in an “Era of Good Feelings” where they can trade peacefully among themselves and be unified once again. Unfortunately, after around 35 years, the American Civil War occurred, dividing the North and South. Then, the definition of sectionalism would appear clearly now that we know what nationalism means. Regional or local spirit. After seeing the meaning to both nationalism and sectionalism; how did it go from American’s nationalism to sectionalism? Hopefully, we will find the answer to this question further on in the chapter.


The most important part of this class was when we were lectured about how transportation played a big role in the American economy and made it self sufficient. At this time, Yoona Cha and Eric Kim had supported us by telling the class the definition of self sufficient, meaning independent. Mr. Armstrong asked us to discuss the answer to how the transportation revolution helped to build the American economy. The Cumberland Road (1811-1837) was the first road built by the federal government and now that there is actually a road to comfortably transport from one place to another; it made trading easier. Not only is it easier for trading, but many people received opportunities by stopping at the inns and restaurants. The Erie Canal was an expansion developed later on. This canal allowed America to become connected to Canada by trading. Since it is a waterway, it was faster, easier, cheaper (saved money), and carried a larger load. Finally, the steamboat was built. Yet, the class could not identify the difference between a steamboat and an ordinary boat. Mandy Myung led us to the answer which was that the steamboats could go upwards or any direction where the other boats have to go along with the wind.

To wrap up the class, Mr. Armstrong gave us time to work on our Week 10 Immersion. Although it was one tiring and difficult class, I was able to understand clearly about our topic.

Jenny J. 8B