GACE Middle Grades Social Science (707) flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

A document, artifact, or account produced by a participant or witness during the period under study, such as a diary, treaty, photograph, or law code.

Corroboration

The practice of comparing multiple independent sources to test whether they agree, which strengthens a claim when sources of different origin support it.

Presentism

Judging past people and events by present-day values instead of the norms and conditions of their own era, a common error in historical reasoning.

Chronology with BCE

Dates before the Common Era count backward, so 3000 BCE is earlier than 1000 BCE, and no year zero exists between BCE and CE.

Relative location

Describing where a place is by direction, distance, and landmarks relative to other places, as opposed to coordinates on a global grid.

Map scale

The ratio between map distance and ground distance; a 1:24,000 map is larger scale and more detailed than a 1:1,000,000 map of a broader area.

Rainshadow effect

Moist air rises and cools on a mountain's windward slope, dropping precipitation, so the leeward slope stays dry and often desert-like.

Push and pull factors

Conditions that drive migrants away from a place, such as conflict or drought, and conditions that attract them elsewhere, such as jobs or safety.

Formal region

An area unified by a measurable shared characteristic, such as a common language, climate type, or political boundary, unlike functional or perceptual regions.

Judicial review

The power of courts to declare legislative or executive acts unconstitutional, established in the United States by Marbury v. Madison in 1803.

Reserved powers

Powers not delegated to the national government nor denied to the states, retained by the states under the Tenth Amendment, such as running elections and schools.

Checks and balances

Constitutional tools each branch uses against the others, including veto and override, judicial review, appointment and confirmation, and impeachment and removal.

Civil liberties versus civil rights

Civil liberties protect individuals from government overreach, such as free speech, while civil rights guarantee equal treatment and protection from discrimination.

Incorporation doctrine

The process by which the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause applies most Bill of Rights protections to state governments, beginning with Gitlow in 1925.

Electoral College

The body that formally elects the president; each state's votes equal its House seats plus two senators, and most states award all votes to the statewide winner.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made, which is a single forgone option rather than the sum of all rejected options.

Production possibilities frontier

A curve showing maximum output combinations of two goods; points on it are efficient, points inside are inefficient, and points outside are currently unattainable.

Demand curve shift

A change in quantity demanded at every price caused by income, tastes, prices of substitutes or complements, or expectations, unlike movement along the curve from a price change.

Real versus nominal GDP

Real GDP is adjusted for inflation using a base year to show actual output change, while nominal GDP uses current prices and can rise from inflation alone.

Comparative advantage

The ability to produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than another producer, which makes specialization and trade mutually beneficial even without absolute advantage.

Price elasticity of demand

A measure of how strongly quantity demanded responds to a price change; demand is elastic with many substitutes and inelastic for necessities with few substitutes.

Cyclical unemployment

Joblessness caused by a downturn in the business cycle, which falls during expansions, as distinct from frictional and structural unemployment.

Inquiry arc

A sequence of disciplinary skills: developing questions, gathering and evaluating sources, building evidence-based claims, communicating conclusions, and taking informed action.

Compelling question

A debatable, discipline-centered question that drives sustained inquiry, such as whether a city should limit growth, as opposed to a narrow factual question.

Supporting question

A narrower question that helps answer a larger compelling question and can be resolved with specific evidence gathered from sources.

Correlation versus causation

Two variables moving together is correlation; causation requires that one variable actually produces change in the other, ruling out reverse and third-variable explanations.

Choropleth map

A map that shades or colors regions according to a value, such as population density, making spatial patterns visible across areas.

Sourcing a document

Identifying an author, date, audience, and purpose before using a source, because those features shape what information is included or left out.

Plagiarism

Presenting another person's words or ideas as your own; avoided by quoting exactly, paraphrasing in your own words, and attributing the original source.

Argument versus opinion

An argument supports a claim with evidence and reasoning and addresses counterclaims, while an opinion states a preference without evidentiary support.

Demographic transition model

A four-stage model tracking birth and death rates as societies industrialize, from high stable rates to falling death rates to low stable rates.

Map projection distortion

Every flat map distorts shape, area, distance, or direction; Mercator preserves direction but exaggerates high-latitude area, while equal-area maps preserve area.