WA State History & English
About this course
The course explores Washington State's geographic features, people, places, and events from prehistory to the modern era. It covers how Native Americans were impacted by European immigration from the 1700's onward. It traces the formation of Washington as a territory and later a state, and the competing business and political interests that shaped the Washington Constitution. It looks at major industrial influences in the 20th Century including the founding of the Boeing Company and the Hanford Nuclear reservation that produced plutonium for atomic bombs which has left a toxic legacy that will take many years to address. The course also introduces students to the legislative process and voting so they can learn how to participate in local and state governance.
Course Outcomes
After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify distinctive geographic features of Washington (including cities, mountains, rivers, and regions) on a map.
- Identify significant people, places, dates and events in Washington history
- Describe how contact with European immigrants led to dramatic changes in Native American cultures
- Identify the major cultural and political impacts of European settlement and immigration to Washington from 1770 through statehood in 1889.
- Identify ways in which race, ethnicity, immigration, and social issues are connected to the labor history of Washington.
- Identify characteristics of the political climate that shaped and defined the drafting of the Washington constitution
- Explain the voting process and how laws get made
- Explain the influences that the Boeing Company and atomic energy have had on the economic growth of Washington.
- Describe the significance of the Bonneville Power Authority and Columbia Basin Project on the development of Central and Eastern Washington.