Enduring Understandings

• Chronology organizes people and events and helps explain historical relationships.

• Societies are diverse and change over time.

• Technology has changed societies throughout history.

• Beliefs of individuals and groups have powerful effects on societies.

• Maps, globes and other geographic tools show places events occur

• Physical and human characteristics of places define regions.

• People migrate and settle in different places for a variety of reasons.

• Human activity changes and is changed by the physical environment.

• Decisions must be made about the use of scarce resources.

• Resources are used to produce and distribute goods and services.

• The exchange of goods and services leads to trade and interdependence.

• Individuals and groups make, enforce and apply rules and laws (government). 

• Government involves people acquiring and using power and authority.

• Rules, laws and governments develop and change over time.

• People and nations interact politically.

 Essential Questions

• When and Why did Europeans explore the New World?

• What new inventions helped guide explorers on their journeys?

• Which early explorers had the greatest impact?

• What impact did the explorers have on the New/Old World?

• How did the beliefs of individuals and groups influence the formation of governments and societies?

• How were the beliefs of individuals/groups in the colonies similar/ different?

• How are maps used to show routes taken to the New World?

• What physical characteristics aided/challenged inhabitants of the first colonies?

• Why did people migrate and settle in these places?

• In what ways were the New England, Middle and Southern colonies most alike?  Most different?

• How did the environment affect human activities?

• How did scarcity of resources lead to trade, exchange and interdependence with Native Americans?

• What role did slavery play in colonization and settlement in different colonies and regions?

• What were the key political challenges and successes of the first English colonies?

• How and why were early colonial governments formed?

• How have the ways people live changed over time?

Standards and Benchmarks

Standard History 1:  Students understand the chronological organization of history and know how to organize events and people into major eras to identify and explain historical relationships.

Benchmark  A:  Students know the general chronological order of events and people in history.

Standard History 3:  Students understand that societies are diverse and change over time.

Benchmark A:  Students know how various societies were affected by contracts and exchanges among diverse people.

Standard History 4:  Students understand how science, technology, and economic activity have developed, changed, and affected societies throughout history.

Benchmark A:  Students understand the impact of scientific and technological developments of individuals and societies.

Standard History 5:  Students understand political institutions and theories that developed and changed over time.

Benchmark A:  Students understand how democratic ideas and institutions in the United States have developed, changed, and/or been maintained.

Standard History 6:  Students know that religious and philosophical ideas have been powerful forces throughout history.

Benchmark B:  Students know how societies have been affected by religions and philosophies.

Standard Geography 1:  Students know how to use and construct maps, globes, and other geographic tools to locate and derive information about people, places, and environments.

Benchmark A:  Students know how to use maps, globes, and other geographic tools to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

Standard Geography 2:  Students know the physical and human characteristics of places, and use this knowledge to define and study regions and their patterns of change.

Benchmark B:  Students know how and why people define regions.

Standard Geography 4:  Students understand how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, interdependence, cooperation and conflict.

Benchmark B:  Students know the nature and spatial distributions of cultural patterns.

Benchmark E:  Students know how cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of the earth's surface

Standard Economics 2:  Students understand how different economic systems impact decisions about the use of resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.

Standard Economics 3:  Students understand the results of trade, exchange, and interdependence among individuals, households, businesses, governments, and societies.

Benchmark A:  Students understand that different economic systems employ different means to produce, distribute, and exchange goods and services.

Benchmark A:  Students understand that the exchange of goods and services creates economic interdependence and change.

Standard Civics 1:  Students understand the purposes of government, and the basic constitutional principles of the United States republican form of government.

Benchmark C:  Students understand the principles of the United States Constitutional Government. 

Standard Civics 2: Students know how to use structure and function of local, state , and nationally government and how citizen involvement shapes public policy.

Benchmark D: Students know how public policy is developed at the local, state, and national levels.