Expanding Connections
Driving Question: How did long-distance connections increase complexity?
People have traded goods and ideas for thousands of years. Once large societies and empires formed, trade routes expanded. But what else was traded as connections crossed longer distances?
Learning Objectives:
- Analyze the expansion and interconnection of complex societies.
- Identify how physical systems impact human systems.
- Explain how new networks of exchange accelerated collective learning and innovation.
Both foragers and early farmers trekked miles over land and sea to exchange goods, people, and ideas. But what happened when these trade routes expanded to cross deserts and oceans?
Don’t skip the World Travelers activity—it’s a student favorite. It also helps students work on their sourcing skills, which makes it a teacher favorite too! An OER Project teacher says this activity is a must-do because it “asks students to think critically about texts and support their conclusions with evidence.”
In nature, there is arguably as much cooperation as there is competition. The same thing is true of human societies. This slideshow and activity explain how one form of cooperation, trade, shaped the cultures it connected.
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Guiding Questions
How Did Cultures Connect?
We recommend creating small groups that include students with a range of reading abilities for the Trade Game activity. You can assign specific Lexile levels or the audio version of the article to students who need more support. Choose different Lexile levels using the Version drop-down menu in the upper-left corner of the article, and access the audio by clicking on the speaker icon in the upper-right corner.
Have students listen to one of the archaeologists responsible for solving the mystery of where the ancestors of Polynesians lived before they began exploring the Pacific. Use the extension clip in this lesson from Episode 7 of the Unknowns with David Christian podcast.
It’s a big world out there, and you really get a sense of that by following how goods travel across trade networks. These next materials dig into how and why distant societies interacted with each other.
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
Encourage students to use AI responsibly by having them enter their claims into an AI agent to get help refining and strengthening their claims.
Your Unit Notebook has been a steady friend to you throughout the course so far! It’s time to update it with some of the essential things you’ve learned.
Graphic biographies are short and fun, but they’re also packed with information. Share this tool with your students to help them break down the elements of graphic bios.
As people connected across vast distances, they shared knowledge and ideas that changed the world.
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
Why did it take thousands of years for humans to migrate from East Asia to Pacific Islands like New Zealand? Explore the mysteries of migration in this podcast clip.
Key Ideas
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Guiding Questions