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Great Civilizations Develop around Rivers ActivityGreat Civilizations Develop around Rivers Activity
Publisher
Council for Economic Education
Resource Details
Curator Rating
Educator Rating
Not yet Rated
Grade
5th - 8th
Subjects
English Language Arts
5 more...
Resource Type
Activities & Projects
Audience
For Teacher Use
Duration
45 mins
Instructional Strategies
Collaborative Learning
2 more...
Usage Permissions
Fine Print: Educational Use
Activity

Great Civilizations Develop around Rivers

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet
This Great Civilizations Develop around Rivers activity also includes:
  • Lesson Slides (.ppt)
  • Great Civilizations Develop around Rivers (.html)
  • Table of Contents (.html)
  • Activity
  • Graphic Organizer
  • Join to access all included materials

If you lived in prehistoric times, what kinds of choices could your family make to increase their chance of survival? By making similar decisions in a simulation game, participants discover how specialization creates both opportunity and challenges. Scholars then consider how being near a river compounds the advantages of specialization. 

198 Views 37 Downloads
CCSS: Adaptable

Concepts

rivers, specialization, agricultural revolution, prehistory, the prehistoric era, human capital, physical capital, trade, natural resources, technology resources, scarcity, surplus, economics

Additional Tags

social studies

Instructional Ideas

  • Divide the class into teams to complete the learning simulation
  • Develop discussion questions for individuals to consider the outcomes of specialization on societies

Classroom Considerations

  • Resource is the fourth of 23 lessons from the Council for Economic Education exploring history
  • While the lesson title indicates rivers are a key focus of the lesson, neither the game nor slides explore the concept in depth

Pros

  • Game is interactive and analytical, making it interesting to a broad group
  • PowerPoint slides help explain difficult economic concepts

Cons

  • None

Common Core

RH.6-8.1 RH.6-8.2 RH.6-8.3

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