Unit 7, Lesson 11: Geography & Civilization Day 2
Learning Target: I can explain the importance geography on the earliest civilization
Class Activities:
1. Students came in and grabbed a "Geography & Civilization Day 2" handout. Instead of a do now, a few students came up to the board and showed where they would place their civilizations on the map. Almost everybody put theirs near a river, because they're so useful (transport, drinking water, washing, good soil for growing food, etc.).
2. Students mapped a couple key rivers on their handouts. I explained that early civilizations thought exactly the same thing we did. They noticed all the benefits of living near a river, and that's why all the earliest civilizations were near rivers. This led to BIG IDEA #1: EARLY CIVILIZATIONS DEPENDED ON THE RIVERS. Instead of learning about all the civilization individually, let's look at it thematically.
3. We watched a clip from "Guns, Germs & Steel". The clip focused on why New Guineans didn't advance but people in Europe & Asia did. Please watch from 25:16-34:39 & 39:30-44:54. We paused it every now and then to go over the answers. The biggest thing to understand is that the Middle East not only had rivers, they had excellent crops (wheat, barley) and excellent domesticated animals (cows, sheep, goats, pigs) that could help farm and provide a regular source of meat/milk. This made it possible to produce food efficiently. And when they could produce more food with less effort, this left more time to develop other tools, skills, and technologies. On the other hand, New Guineans only had banana and taro root. Taro root rots isn't very nutritious, takes a lot of effort to grow, and rots quickly. Also, pigs are the only domesticated animal in New Guinea, and they can't pull a plow, or give milk/wool. This leads to BIG IDEA #2: CIVILIZATIONS DEVELOP WHEN THERE IS A FOOD SURPLUS. New Guineans were so concerned about food that they didn't really have time to develop other tools/skilled.
Papers handed in today:
Geography and Civilization handout
Homework:
FInish Geography & Civilization Day 2 handout
Class Activities:
1. Students came in and grabbed a "Geography & Civilization Day 2" handout. Instead of a do now, a few students came up to the board and showed where they would place their civilizations on the map. Almost everybody put theirs near a river, because they're so useful (transport, drinking water, washing, good soil for growing food, etc.).
2. Students mapped a couple key rivers on their handouts. I explained that early civilizations thought exactly the same thing we did. They noticed all the benefits of living near a river, and that's why all the earliest civilizations were near rivers. This led to BIG IDEA #1: EARLY CIVILIZATIONS DEPENDED ON THE RIVERS. Instead of learning about all the civilization individually, let's look at it thematically.
3. We watched a clip from "Guns, Germs & Steel". The clip focused on why New Guineans didn't advance but people in Europe & Asia did. Please watch from 25:16-34:39 & 39:30-44:54. We paused it every now and then to go over the answers. The biggest thing to understand is that the Middle East not only had rivers, they had excellent crops (wheat, barley) and excellent domesticated animals (cows, sheep, goats, pigs) that could help farm and provide a regular source of meat/milk. This made it possible to produce food efficiently. And when they could produce more food with less effort, this left more time to develop other tools, skills, and technologies. On the other hand, New Guineans only had banana and taro root. Taro root rots isn't very nutritious, takes a lot of effort to grow, and rots quickly. Also, pigs are the only domesticated animal in New Guinea, and they can't pull a plow, or give milk/wool. This leads to BIG IDEA #2: CIVILIZATIONS DEVELOP WHEN THERE IS A FOOD SURPLUS. New Guineans were so concerned about food that they didn't really have time to develop other tools/skilled.
Papers handed in today:
Geography and Civilization handout
Homework:
FInish Geography & Civilization Day 2 handout
9global_geography_and_civilization_day_2_handout.pdf | |
File Size: | 195 kb |
File Type: |