Author: emily.popek

Students will develop a beginning understanding that geographic regions have unifying characteristics and can be studied using a variety of tools. They will learn to recognize and identify that the location of world communities can be described using geographic tools and vocabulary. The students will examine how geographic factors influence where people settle and form communities and learn to identify and explain how people adapt to and modify their environment in different ways to meet their needs.

Students will develop an understanding of the history and geography of the Western Hemisphere. They will compare and contrast the similarities and differences between simple and complex societies (religion, job specialization, cities, government, language and writing systems, technology, and social hierarchy). They will identify, list and discuss the benefits of living in a complex society. Finally, the students will compare and contrast political states of the Maya and the Aztec, noting the territories that they controlled, the type of rule each had, and how the ruler attempted to unify the people.

Students will analyze how the American colonies were established for a variety of reasons and developed differently based on economic, social, religious and geographic factors. They will compare and contrast the social, economic, and scientific improvements that helped European nations launch an Age of Exploration. Students will investigate the varied relationships and interactions Europeans had with Native American societies they encountered and the losses Native American societies suffered, and begin to investigate slavery over the 17th and 18th centuries and its growth among the colonies.

In this unit, students will students will study Native American groups, chiefly the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and Algonquian-speaking groups, and focus on how they inhabited the region that became New York State. These people interacted with the environment and developed unique cultures. Student will investigate how geographic factors often influenced locations of early settlements and people made use of the resources and the lands around them to meet their basic needs. In addition, students will study how Native American groups developed specific patterns of organization and governance to manage their societies and how each Native American group developed a unique way of life with a shared set of customs, beliefs, and values.