Social Studies 7

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Big Ideas

Grandes idées

Geographic conditions shaped the emergence of civilizations.

Religious and cultural practices that emerged during this period have endured and continue to influence people.

Increasingly complex societies required new systems of laws and government.

Economic specialization and trade networks can lead to conflict and cooperation between societies.

Curricular Competencies

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Students are expected to be able to do the following:

Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to — ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions

Key skills:
- Select a relevant problem or issue for inquiry.
- Use comparison, classification, inference, imagination, verification, and analogy to clarify and define a problem or issue.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of various graphic forms of communication (e.g., graphs, tables, charts, maps, photographs, sketches).
- Demonstrate an ability to interpret scales and legends in graphs, tables, and maps (e.g., climograph, topographical map, pie chart).
- Compare maps of early civilizations with modern maps of the same area.
- Select an appropriate graphic form of communication for a specific purpose (e.g., a timeline to show a sequence of events, a map to show location).
- Represent information fairly and cite sources consistently.
- Select appropriate forms of presentation suitable for the purpose and audience (e.g., multimedia, oral presentation, song, dramatic performance, written presentation).
- Demonstrate debating skills, including identifying, discussing, defining, and clarifying a problem, issue, or inquiry.

Assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments at particular times and places

Sample activity:
- Identify specific examples of influences and contributions from ancient cultures (e.g., writing system, number system, philosophy, education, religion
- and spirituality, visual arts, drama, architecture, timekeeping) and assess their significance.
Key questions:
- What is the most significant archeological finding that helps us understand the development of humans?
- What are the most significant factors that contribute to the decline of an empire?
- Why are philosophers from this era still significant today?

(significance)

Identify what the creators of accounts, narratives, maps, or texts have determined is significant (significance)

Assess the credibility of multiple sources and the adequacy of evidence used to justify conclusions

Sample activities:
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of specific types of sources for specific purposes (e.g., primary and secondary sources; print, video, electronic, graphic sources; artifacts).
- Compare information-gathering methodologies (e.g., primary research using surveys, archeological excavation, interviews; research using secondary sources; testing of hypotheses).
- Apply criteria to evaluate information and information sources (e.g., assess bias, reliability, authorship, currency, audience; confirm value using multiple sources).
Key questions:
- What can we learn from ancient civilizations based on the artifacts we have found?
- How do artifacts and monuments reflect the surrounding geography?

(evidence)

Characterize different time periods in history, including periods of progress and decline, and identify key turning points that marked periods of change

Key question:
- What are different ways that you can categorize different periods in history?

(continuity and change)

Determine which causes most influenced particular decisions, actions, or events, and assess their short- and long-term consequences

Sample activity:
- Explain key factors in the spread of Christianity.
Key question:
- What role does geography play in the location of civilizations?

(cause and consequence)

Explain different perspectives on past or present people, places, issues, or events, and compare the values, worldviews, and beliefs of human cultures and societies in different times and places

Key questions:
- What are the different attitudes toward death and the afterlife in religions and cultures?
- How do historians’ views on the decline of the Roman Empire differ?

(perspective)

Make ethical judgments about past events, decisions, or actions, and assess the limitations of drawing direct lessons from the past

Key questions:
- How should we resolve competing claims of ownership over religious holy sites?
- Was (Emperor Chin, Julius Caesar, or other person of significance) a tyrant or a great leader? Explain why or why not.

(ethical judgment)

Content

Students are expected to know the following:

anthropological origins of humans

Sample topics:
- early origins of humans in Africa and the migration of early humans out of Africa to the rest of the world
- interactions between early humans and Neanderthals
- technological developments of early humans and the increasingly sophisticated use of stone tools and early metalworking
- the shift of early humans from a nomadic hunter-gatherer way of life to more settled agricultural communities
Key question:
- What advantages did agriculture have over the hunter-gather way of life?

human responses to particular geographic challenges and opportunities, including climates, landforms, and natural resources

Sample activities:
- Identify the key characteristics of physical environments that affected the following for selected ancient cultures:
  - development and settlement (e.g., proximity to water, fertile land, natural resources, defensibility)
  - the fall of the culture (e.g., earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic activity, unsustainable human practices)
  - interactions among cultures (e.g., mountain ranges, oceans, rivers)
- Describe how humans adapted to their physical environment in ancient civilizations (e.g., architecture, transportation methods, clothing)
- Create maps to show the key physical environmental characteristics of a selected ancient culture
Key question:
- What types of strategies have different civilizations used to respond to similar challenges imposed by the physical environment?

features and characteristics of civilizations and factors that lead to their rise and fall

Sample topics:
- components that are common to cultures around the world and throughout time (e.g., social organization, religion, traditions, celebrations, government, law, trade, communications, transportation, technology, fine arts, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, education)
- elements of civilizations such as advanced technology, specialized workers, record keeping, complex institutions, major urban centres

origins, core beliefs, narratives, practices, and influences of religions, including at least one indigenous to the Americas

Sample topic:
- representations of the world according to the religions, spiritual beliefs, myths, stories, knowledge, and languages of past civilizations and cultures

scientific, philosophical, and technological developments

Sample activities:
- Cite specific examples to explain the contributions of ancient cultures to the evolution of various fields of technology (e.g., astronomy, medicine, paper, sea travel, agriculture, ceramics)
- Compare selected technologies from selected ancient cultures in terms of materials, purpose, and impact on society and daily life

interactions and exchanges between past civilizations and cultures, including conflict, peace, trade, expansion, and migration

Sample topic:
- inter-relationships and influences among selected ancient cultures (e.g., Egyptian adaptation of chariots from the Hyksos; Roman adaptation of Greek gods and mythology; adaptations of Sumerian writing system, Babylonian code of law, Sumerian irrigation system)
Key question:
- What is the impact on language of increased trade and interactions between civilizations and cultures?

social, political, legal, governmental, and economic systems and structures, including at least one indigenous to the Americas

Sample activities:
- List and describe aspects of current Canadian laws and government structures that have evolved from ancient civilizations (e.g., rule of law, democracy, senate, representation)
- Describe examples of individual rights in ancient civilizations and compare them to individual rights in current Canadian society
- Compare various social roles within a selected ancient culture in terms of daily life and how people met their basic needs (e.g., work, family structures, gender roles, class systems)
- Create a chart or other representation to illustrate the economic and social hierarchy of roles and classes in a selected ancient culture (e.g., slaves, farmers, builders, merchants, artisans, scribes, teachers, priests, rulers)
- List goods and services that people in ancient civilizations used in trade (e.g., items needed for survival and comfort, goods and services that could be offered for trade)
- Explain how and why monetary systems evolved from bartering

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