Eastern Hemisphere (Grades 5-8)

History Students examine the connections of their own environment with the past and develop an understanding of how people and events of the past and present influence what happens in the world.

Geography Students explore geographic relationships between physical, environmental characteristics and distinctive cultural features of their community, state, nation and world.

Civic/Government Students learn that they are citizens of their community, nation and world and the importance of the contributions they make to be a responsible, engaged citizen. Students gain understanding in how people create, interact with, and change structures of power, authority and governance that protect the rights of people.

Economic Students explore how people organized and use resources and depend on one another for the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services.

Discipleship: Students understand the impact of Catholic faith on all aspects of the study of interactions among individuals, groups, institutions, past and present.

Historical Thinking and Skills

Early Civilizations

Spatial Thinking and Skills

Places and Regions

Human Systems

Civic and Participation Skills

Roles and Systems of Government

Economic Decision Making Skills

Scarcity

Markets

Financial Literacy

Evangelization

Social Justice

Living the Faith

Events can be arranged in order of occurrence using the conventions of B.C. and A.D. or B.C.E. and C.E.

Early civilizations (India, Egypt, China and Mesopotamia)with uniquegovernments, economic systems, social structures, religions, technologies and agricultural practices and products flourished as a result of favorable geographic characteristics. The cultural practices and products of these early civilizations can be used to help understand the Eastern Hemisphere today

Globes and other geographic tools can be used to gather, process and report information about people, places and environments. Cartographers decide which information to include in maps.

Latitude and longitude can be used to identify absolute location

Regions can be determined, classified and compared using various criteria (e.g., landform, climate, population, cultural or economic).

Variations among physical environments within the Eastern Hemisphere influence human activities. Human activities also alter the physical environment.

Religious, political, environmental, social and economic factors cause people, products and ideas to move from place to place in the Eastern Hemisphere in the past and today.

 Modern cultural practices and products show the influence of tradition and diffusion, including the impact of major world religions (Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism).

Different perspectives on a topic can be obtained from a variety of historic and contemporary sources. Sources can be examined for accuracy.

Governments can be categorized as monarchies, theocracies, dictatorships or democracies, but categories may overlap and labels may not accurately represent how governments function.

The extent of citizens’ liberties and responsibilities varies according to limits on governmental authority. (CST 3)

Economists compare data sets to draw conclusions about relationships among them

 The choices people make have both present and future consequences. The evaluation of choices is relative and may differ across individuals and societies.

The fundamental questions of economics include; What to produce? How to produce? For whom to produce?

When regions and/or countries specialize, global trade occurs.

The interaction of supply and demand, influenced by competition, helps to determine price in a market. This interaction also determines the quantities of outputs produced and the quantities of inputs (human resources, natural resources and capital) used.

When selecting items to buy, individuals can compare the price and quality of available goods and services

Origin of the Catholic Church and expansion through Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Rise of monotheistic beliefs (i.e., pertains to the Old Testament; role of law, code of ethics, mosaic law/Hammurabi) .

The contributions of Old Testament figures and Divine revelation through history.