Social Studies 7

Unit 1: Human Origins

Big Idea: geographic conditions shaped the emergence of civilizations. Where humans came from, and how the story of our origins is pieced together from fossil, tool, and genetic evidence.

• The anthropological story of human origins

Unit 2: Geography and Early Peoples

Big Idea: geographic conditions shaped the emergence of civilizations. How climate, landforms, and natural resources shaped where people settled, how a culture eventually fell, and how cultures interacted with one another.

• How geography shaped early societies

Unit 3: Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Big Idea: increasingly complex societies required new systems of laws and government. What features define a civilization in the first place, and — separately — the patterns behind why civilizations grow powerful and why they eventually collapse.

• Features and characteristics of civilizations

• Factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations

Unit 4: World Religions

Big Idea: religious and cultural practices that emerged during this period have endured and continue to influence people. Where major world religions began, what they teach, and how they have shaped societies — including a religion indigenous to the Americas.

• Origins, beliefs, and influence of religions

Unit 5: Science, Philosophy, and Technology

Big Idea: economic specialization and trade networks can lead to conflict and co-operation between societies. The concrete scientific discoveries and technological inventions of ancient cultures — and, separately, the philosophical ideas about how to live, govern, and know that are still studied today.

• Scientific and technological developments

• Philosophical developments

Unit 6: Contact and Exchange Between Civilizations

Big Idea: economic specialization and trade networks can lead to conflict and co-operation between societies. How civilizations met one another — through conflict, peace, trade, expansion, and migration — and changed each other as a result.

• Interactions and exchanges between civilizations

Unit 7: Systems and Structures

Big Idea: increasingly complex societies required new systems of laws and government. How early societies organized power, law, and government; how they sorted people into social classes and roles; and how their economies ran — including at least one system indigenous to the Americas.

• Political, legal, and governmental systems

• Social systems: hierarchy, roles, and individual rights

• Economic systems: trade and the shift to money