HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE

 
Standard 6.1

Students describe what is known through archaeological studies of 
the early physical and cultural development of mankind from the 
Paleolithic Era to the agricultural revolution, in terms of: 
 

 
1.) The hunter-gatherer societies and their characteristics,
including the development of tools and the use of fire.

 
2.) The location of human communities that populated the major 
regions of the world and how humans adapted to a variety of 
environments. 

 
3.) The climatic changes and human modifications of the physical
environment that gave rise to the domestication of plants and 
animals and the increase in the sources of clothing and shelter. 

 
Skills:

 
1. Frame questions that can be answered by historical study
and research .

 
2. Explain how major events are related to each other in time. 

 
3. Identify the physical and cultural features of an early culture.

 
4. Distinguish cause, effect, sequence, and correlation in
historical events, including long- and short-term causal relations.

 
5. Explain the central issues and problems of the past, 
placing people and events in a matrix of time and place. 

 
6. Recognize and explain how the environment and history 
provided for the development of an increase in plant
domestication and sources of shelter and clothing.

 
7. Understand why civilizations develop where they do

 
Standard 6.2

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and 
social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush" 
 

 
Skills:

 
1. Locate and describe the river systems and physical setting 
that supported permanent settlement and early civilizations.

 
2. Research the development of agricultural techniques that
permitted the production of economic surplus and the emergence
of cities as centers of culture and power.

 
3. Analyze the relationship between religion and the social and
political order in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

 
4. Analyze the significance of Hammurabi's Code.

 
5. Study Egyptian art and architecture.

 
6. Describe the location and role of Egyptian trade in the Eastern Mediterranean and Nile Valley.

 
7. Analyze the significance of the lives of Queen Hatsheput and 
Ramses the Great.

 
8. Research the location of the Kush civilization and its political,
commercial and cultural relations with Egypt"

 
9. Study the evolution of language and its written form.

 
Standard 6.3

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of the Ancient Hebrews, in terms of:

 
1.) The origins and significance of Judaism as the first monotheistic religion based on the concept of one God who sets down moral laws for humanity. 

 
2.) The sources of the ethical teachings and central beliefs of Judaism (the Hebrew Bible, the Commentaries): belief in God, observance of law, practice of concepts of righteousness and justice, and importance of study; how the ideas of the Hebrew traditions are reflected in the moral and ethical traditions of Western civilization.

 
3.) How Abraham, Moses, Naomi, Ruth, David, and Yohanan ben Zaccai influenced the development of the Jewish religion. 

 
4.) The location of the settlements and movements of Hebrew peoples, including the Exodus, the movement to and from Egypt, and the significance of the Exodus experience to the Jewish people and other people in history. 

 
5.) How Judaism survived and developed despite the continuing dispersion of much of the Jewish population from Jerusalem and the rest of the land of Israel after the destruction of the second Temple in 70.

 
Standard 6.4

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social 
structures of early civilizations of Ancient Greece. 
 

 
Skills:

 
1. Determine the connections between geography and the
development of city-states in the region of the Aegean Sea,
including patterns of trade and commerce among Greek 
city-states and within the wider Mediterranean region.

 
2. Trace the transition from tyranny and oligarchy to early 
democratic forms of government and back to dictatorship in 
ancient Greece and the significance of the invention of the 
idea of citizenship.

 
3. Analyze the key difference between Athenian or direct 
democracy and representative democracy.

 
4. Compare the significance of Greek mythology to the everyday
life of people in the region and how Greek literature continues to 
permeate our literature and language today.

 
5. Trace the founding, expansion, and political organization of the 
Persian Empire.

 
6. Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between 
Athens and Sparta, with emphasis on their roles in the Persian and Peloponnesian War.

 
7. Trace the rise of Alexander the Great in the North and the
spread of Greek culture eastward and into Egypt.

 
8. Research the enduring contribution of important Greek figures 
in the arts and sciences. 

 
Standard 6.5

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of India, in terms of:

 
1.) The location and description of the river system and physical setting that supported the rise of this civilization. 

 
2.) The significance of the Aryan invasions.

 
3.) The major beliefs and practices of Brahmanism in India and how they evolved into early Hinduism. 

 
4.) The social structure of the caste system.

 
5.) The life and moral teachings of Buddha and how Buddhism spread in India, Ceylon, and Central Asia. 

 
6.) The growth of the Maurya empire and the political and moral achievements of the emperor Asoka.

 
7.) Important aesthetic and intellectual traditions. (e.g., Sanskrit literature, including the Bhagavad Gita, medicine, metallurgy, mathematics including Hindu-Arabic numerals and the zero)

 
Standard 6.6

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of China, in terms of:

 
1.) The location and description of the origins of Chinese civilization in the Huang-He Valley Shang dynasty. 

 
2.) The geographical features of China that made governance and movement of ideas and goods difficult and served to isolate that country from the rest of the world. 

 
3.) The life of Confucius and the fundamental teachings of Confucianism and Taoism. 

 
4.) The political and cultural problems prevalent in the time of Confucius and how he sought to solve them. 

 
5.) The policies and achievements of the emperor Shi Huangdi in unifying northern China under the Qin dynasty. 

 
6.) The political contributions of the Han dynasty to the development of the imperial bureaucratic state and the expansion of the empire. 

 
7.) The significance of the trans-Eurasian "silk roads" in the period of the Han and Roman empires and their locations. 

 
8.) The diffusion of Buddhism northward to China during the Han dynasty. 

 
Standard 6.7

Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and 
social structures in the development of Rome.
 

 
Skills: 

 
1. Trace the rise of the Roman Empire.

 
2. Identify the location of the Roman Republic.

 
3. Identify the character of the Roman Republic government 
and its significance today. 

 
4. Analyze the political and geographic reasons for the growth 
of Roman territories and the expansion of the empire.

 
5. Identify how the roman empire fostered economic growth 
through the use of currency and trade routes.

 
6. Trace the migration of Jews around the Mediterranean 
region and the effects of their conflict with the Romans.

 
7. Trace the origins of Christianity in Europe and Roman 
territories.

 
8. Identify the legacies of Roman art and architecture, technology 
and science, literature, language and law.