Curriculum

ATTENTION USAD PARTICIPANTS:

USAD is pleased to release information on the curriculum for the 2010-2011 Academic Decathlon season. The full subject area outlines are posted on USAD’s website and are also published in USAD’s Study Guide.

The curricular theme for 2010–2011 will be The Great Depression. Following is some general information on the topics in each of the subject areas.

Topics

• SUPER QUIZ: The Super Quiz will focus on the topic of geology and will include a case study on the Dust Bowl. The Super Quiz Resource Guide will include readings on such topics as rock formation, the geological time scale, the hydrologic cycle and groundwater, the causes of the Dust Bowl, plate tectonics, and fossil fuel resources. 
• LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE: The language and literature curriculum will include critical reading, one novel, two interviews, one essay, two short stories, and two poems. The featured novel will be The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
• ART: The art curriculum will cover art fundamentals and will focus on art in the era of the Great Depression.
• MUSIC: The music curriculum will cover basic elements of music theory and will focus on American music of the 1930s.
• SOCIAL SCIENCE: The social science curriculum will focus on the Great Depression and the New Deal.
• ECONOMICS: The economics curriculum will cover fundamental economic concepts, microeconomics, and macroeconomics. The economics curriculum will also include a thematic section focused on the Great Depression. 
• MATHEMATICS: The mathematics curriculum will cover topics in algebra, coordinate geometry, and trigonometry.