This full year course introduces students to the study of world history in order to construct a common memory of where humankind has been and what accounts for present circumstances. Building upon foundations from middle school, the course begins with a period of expanding and intensified hemispheric interactions (circa 300 C.E.) and continues to the present. Within each historical era, students work at three interconnected spatial scales to study world history through several lenses: global, interregional, and regional. Through a global and comparative approach, students examine worldwide events, processes, and interactions among the world's people, cultures, societies, and environment. Interregional and regional scales provide students the opportunity for deep investigation of examples of global trends. Emphasis is placed on skills that enable students to evaluate evidence, develop comparative and causal analyses, interpret the historical record, construct sound historical arguments, and recognize perspectives on which informed decisions in contemporary life can be based. In addition, this course enables students to focus on large historical and geographic patterns, as well as their causes and consequences. Students study human governance systems, patterns of interactions among societies and regions, and patterns of cultural, intellectual, religious, and social changes. They analyze the impact of demographic, technological, environmental, political, and economic changes on people, their culture, and their environment. The integration of historical thinking skills and historical understandings throughout this course equips students to analyze issues and problems confronting citizens today.