Dan Meddaugh makes up one-half of the Social Studies Department. Upon graduation from UW-Platteville in 2008, Dan was placed as a student teacher at Catholic Central High School. He earned his B.S. in Comprehensive Social Sciences with a History and Psychology emphasis. He is the school’s Senior Advisor, along with being an assistant basketball coach to the Boys’ Varsity Basketball team. This year Dan Meddaugh is the teacher for the following courses: US History, AP Psychology, International Relations and Social Sciences. Helping to reform the curriculum at Catholic Central, Dan Meddaugh believes in the departments goal to provide a constructivist approach to learning, maximizing a project-based learning approach. Within his classroom, students are engaged and challenged through a multitude of projects and simulations that help with the learning process. Because of this attitude, students have come to expect these opportunities within Dan Meddaugh’s classroom.

The US History class at Catholic Central utilizes the Immersion Process as a tool in the classroom. The Immersion Process could be categorized as “Living History”, from their research on an era in history, students will be responsible for recreating that time in the classroom. This includes transforming themselves to be a person from that time period. Below are some pictures from past Immersions.

Students recreate 1622 Plymouth of Massachusetts

Students recreate a 1930 Speakeasy in Chicago, IL

Students in Tombstone, AZ in 1880

Students living in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692

Students recreate the famous “Signing of the Declaration of Independence” painting

Any Similarities?

In US History class, the students also have the opportunity to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield as a whole class in Gettysburg, PA. For a weekend, Dan Meddaugh, using his years of research on the field, takes the class on a tour of the field, re-tracing the same steps the soldiers took 150 years ago. The 2015 trip will mark the tenth year in a row that Catholic Central’s US History class has gone, it will be the sixth student group that Mr. Meddaugh has led.

Last year this trip was a focus in the education section of the Racine Journal Times, here is the link to that article: Journal Times Article on the Gettysburg Trip

Here is last year’s group picture:

2014 Catholic Central’s Gettysburg Trip

Dan Meddaugh also created a video montage documenting the trip through the eyes of the students, using their pictures and statements made about the trip in their reflections of the voyage, you can view that video here: video chronicling the 2014 Gettysburg Trip

  

In AP Psychology, students take a college level course covering one of the most popular courses in Universities today. Discussing the wide range of topics that Psychology explores, from the biological processes to social and abnormal, among many others, the goal that the students have for this class is to earn college credits on the AP test in May. The 2014 graduates who took this course had a 70% pass rate for college credits, something that Mr. Meddaugh looks to improve upon for the upcoming year.

International Relations is a course in which students study current events, all the while preparing for a Model UN Simulation that takes up the second half of the class. The major topics this year have included ISIS, the Ukraine/Russia crisis and the Ebola epidemic; students learn about these topics as they are happening in real time, often times reading articles that are mere hours old on the internet, to gain an understanding and begin analyzing decisions made by world leaders. Students will also become involved in their own Model UN within the class. Each student has chosen a country from the pool of all member states to the UN, and has begun research on that country. Starting in the 2nd quarter, students will be in debate, discussion, which will seek to create resolutions on numerous topics that are real issues that the world is facing.

Lastly, Social Sciences is a pop look at Psychology and Sociology. Students will learn the fundamentals of both studies, all the while engaged in projects that will help to further understand the knowledge through practice. Social Psych experiments, Psychoanalysis, Socio-Cultural projects are just a few of the types of simulations and situations students will find themselves involved with in this classroom.

If you have any questions about Dan Meddaugh’s classes, or would love to hear more about the classroom and the educational practices, feel free to call or email Mr. Meddaugh at any time. His work phone is 262.763.1510 x425, and his email address is dmeddaugh@cchsnet.org . Thanks for taking the time out to learn a bit about the Social Studies curriculum at Catholic Central High School and Go Toppers!