Semester Reflection:

This semester I did an independent inquiry study answering the question, “Why was inflation so high in the 1970’s?” I had a lot of fun learning about my topic, because I believe learning how inflation went out of control in the past is important to prevent it in the future. I think one of the most interesting things I learned was how much America depended on OPEC’s oil. Multiple countries’s economies relied on whether or not OPEC countries sold them oil, which was a recipe for disaster. Another thing I found interesting is how the Federal Reserve, the MOST powerful economic institution in America, messed up their understanding of economics – leading to inflation. The way I gathered information this project was by focusing on finding a solid primary source, and then filling in the gaps/going further in depth with other non-primary sources. The main source I used was from the Federal Reserve’s website, and that gave me lots of information, like how the Federal Reserve messed up, or graphs showing the inflation. I was able to express my ideas through writing, as I feel writing an essay is the best way to display my information. My topic is significant in the present time, because if you do not learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. By learning the mistakes and misunderstandings that led up to the hyperinflation in the 1970’s we can avoid it from happening again.

Artifact:

This is the Federal Reserve building, and it relates to my inquiry question, because the Federal Reserve was partly responsible for the “Great Inflation.”

Core Competency Responses:

I can examine and evaluate to improve my own work; evidence of this is my note taking. At the start of the semester it was noticeable that my Cornell Notes were too long. I had never been someone to take notes, and at the start they were bad. However, I was able to improve my notes through practice, feed back, and going over them to shorten them.

I have valuable ideas to share in class, and I do so by participating in class discussions. I try to contribute every day by raising my hand and answering questions based on all sorts of social studies topics.

I use evidence to make judgements and decisions; I have demonstrated this in the paragraphs I write on tests. For example the WW2 paragraph, I was able to identify underlying causes of the holocaust like Social Darwinism by finding evidence that Nazi’s thought Jewish people were inferior, and connecting it back to that big idea.