Montana standards alignment

• Geography, Grades 9-12 — (3)(b)

  Covered

  use geographic data to analyze variations in the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics at multiple scales

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option A, map the supply chain of 3 items from your morning routine
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, Coffee Belt climate report, with maps and data tables

  Note: The Commodity Map is this standard: every episode pinned at its origin, the Growing Belts analyzed by latitude band and country, and the Coffee project has the student prepare maps and data tables of spatial patterns at multiple scales.

• Economics, Grades 9-12 — (2)(c)

  Partially covered

  analyze the ways in which pressures and incentives influence what is produced and distributed in a market system

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · Ep 1 · Price Shocks and Why You Keep Buying
  • · Ep 4 · From Luxury to the Cheapest Calorie
  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: what gets produced and distributed is taught through real commodity markets — climate and soil deciding where crops can grow, supply shocks and inelastic demand moving prices — rather than as a general markets unit.

• Geography, Grades 9-12 — (3)(d)

  Partially covered

  analyze relationships and interactions within and between human and physical systems to explain reciprocal influences that occur among them, including American Indians

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Kava — The Root of Peace
  • Tea — The Way of Tea
  • Sugar — The Sweet Revolution
  • Guayusa & Kola Nut — Forest Wisdom

  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 10 · Karst Limestone and Bourbon
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, assess a producing country's climate viability and defend the assessment
  • · The Commodity Map itself, every episode pinned at its origin
  • · The Growing Belts map, production regions by latitude band and country
  • · Ep 1 · The Coffee Belt: Where Coffee Grows and Why
  • · Ep 3 · The Cacao Tree and the Narrowest Belt

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: reciprocal human-physical interaction is the curriculum's method — volcanic soil and altitude deciding what grows, climate change redrawing the growing belts. The standard's American Indian focus is not taught.

• Geography, Grades 9-12 — (3)(g)

  Partially covered

  evaluate the influence of long-term climate variability on human migration and settlement patterns, resource use, and land uses at local-to-global scales

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · Ep 6 · Islands Under Pressure
  • · Ep 8 · Beer Geography Is Shifting

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: published climate forecasts and their implications for growers, land use, and production regions are analyzed in depth (coffee, cacao, kava, beer). Climate-driven human migration is touched, not worked.

• Earth and Space Science, Grades 9-12 — natural resources, hazards, and climate and human activity

  Partially covered

  construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of natural resources, occurrence of natural hazards, and changes in climate have influenced human activity

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · Ep 6 · Why Volcanic Soil Only
  • · Ep 10 · Karst Limestone and Bourbon
  • · Ep 1 · Assignment, Option B, assess a producing country's climate viability and defend the assessment

  What we do and don't cover: Read this before relying on it: this is NOT a science course — no laboratory work, no investigations, no modelling. What it has is the standard's substance: resource availability, hazards, and climate shaping human activity, with published evidence. The STUDENT constructs the explanation only in the Coffee project (Option B); this contributes to Montana's standard, it does not discharge it.

• Earth and Space Science, Grades 9-12 — evidence-based climate forecast

  Partially covered

  analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems

  Covered by

  • Coffee — The Daily Global Connection
  • Chocolate — Food of the Gods
  • Kava — The Root of Peace

  • · Ep 1 · Climate Change Is Redrawing the Map
  • · Ep 3 · A Two-Degree Threat
  • · Ep 6 · Islands Under Pressure
  • · Ep 8 · Beer Geography Is Shifting

  What we do and don't cover: Partial: published climate forecasts and their implications for growing regions are analyzed in depth (coffee, cacao, kava, beer). The standard's own analysis of geoscience data and global climate models is not performed by the student — the lessons work from the published forecasts.

What we don't claim

A standards page is only worth reading if the omissions are honest too. We looked at these and left them out:

• Indian Education for All — Montana's constitutional mandate, which this catalog does not teach. Montana's 1972 Constitution (Article X, Section 1(2)) commits the state, in its educational goals, to “the preservation of [American Indians'] cultural integrity,” and the Indian Education for All Act (1999) carries that into every subject. It is woven through the standards we mapped: civics-and-government (1)(g) (“explain the foundations and complexity of sovereignty for federally recognized tribes in Montana”), the “including American Indians / American Indian history / tribal contexts” clauses in economics (2)(a), geography (3)(d), and history (4)(c), (4)(d), (4)(e), and (4)(j), the American Indian author/source requirements added to the ELA literacy standards, and a science standard on American Indian tribes' management of natural resources. Montana Civics teaches Montana's OWN state government, and the BVC catalog teaches world, U.S., colonial, and labor history — but neither teaches tribal governments, tribal sovereignty, or American Indian history. So every tribal/American-Indian-specific standard and standard-clause is NOT claimed, and the IEFA-modified literacy standards we do claim are marked partial with the American Indian requirement called out. The gap is in the catalog, not the standards.
• Mathematics — nothing. This catalog does no mathematics instruction, so it meets no Montana mathematics standard.
• Montana's own state government has thin coverage in the 9-12 standards. Montana Civics teaches the 1972 Constitution (environment, privacy, right to know), the biennial 90-day citizen Legislature, the plural executive, the nonpartisan elected judiciary, the initiative and referendum, and the 56 counties — from Montana's own sources. But the grades 9-12 civics-and-government standards are federal, comparative, and tribal in emphasis; they contain no “describe your state's government structure” expectation at high school, so the flagship's Montana-structure lessons map only where (1)(e), (1)(i), and (1)(j) reach. The depth is in the course, not the standards.
• Civics-and-government expectations we checked and rejected. Beyond the tribal-sovereignty standard (1)(g), we do not claim (1)(b) (constitutions, laws, treaties, and international agreements on relationships), (1)(c) (international agreements on world issues), (1)(d) (applying civic virtues when working with others, a disposition), (1)(f) (comparing the U.S. system to international systems), (1)(h) (deliberative processes), (1)(k) (market, media, and group influences on civic virtues — our media literacy is consumer protection, not political-media analysis), or (1)(l) (ensuring civil rights across levels) — the courses do not genuinely teach these.
• Economics, geography, and history expectations we checked and rejected. Economics (2)(a) (IEFA), (2)(b), (2)(e), (2)(g)-(2)(i) (economic cycles, indicators, and monetary and fiscal policy) are not taught — the BVC economics is microeconomic and trade-focused. Geography (3)(a), (3)(c), (3)(e), (3)(f), and (3)(h) are not the worked material. History (4)(a), (4)(e) (IEFA), (4)(f), (4)(g), (4)(j) (IEFA), (4)(l), (4)(m), and (4)(n) (a sustained source-based argument-writing programme) are not genuinely taught; the Coffee project reaches (4)(m)/(4)(n) only as one optional project.
• Science — two partial claims, no more. Montana's 2016 science standards are Montana's own, not the NGSS, and this catalog has no laboratory work, no investigation, and no modelling — so we claim exactly two Earth-and-Space-Science standards, partially, and explain the limit on each. The IEFA science standard (American Indian tribes' management of natural resources) is not taught.
• The AI-literacy ladder, the language courses, and Learning How to Learn — deferred, not denied. Montana's closest frameworks (Computer Science, World Languages) have not been fetched and verified yet. Our rule is fetch-or-don't-cite, so these courses carry no Montana claims this pass.