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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:

  1. Analyze the expansion and interconnection of complex societies.
  2. Identify how physical systems impact human systems.
  3. Explain how new networks of exchange accelerated collective learning and innovation.

Vocab Terms:

  • belief system
  • culture
  • disease
  • empire
  • military
  • tax
  • trade
STEP 1

Opener: Expanding Connections

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 5.5 Teaching Guide Locked .

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?

STEP 2

Making Connections

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 5.5 Teaching Guide Locked .

Looking to differentiate, modify or adapt this assignment? Check out our Differentiation Guide Locked .

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.

How Did the World Become Interconnected? External link

New trade networks caused an explosion in the trade of goods, but also in ideas, technologies, and diseases. These networks were also essential to collective learning.

Key Ideas

As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
STEP 3

Connecting Across Distances

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 5.5 Teaching Guide Locked .

Check out the blog “Experiencing history in the classroom External link ” about bringing experiential learning activities to the classroom.

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.

STEP 4

Closer: Expanding Connections

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 5.5 Teaching Guide Locked .

Our Writing Guide shares our approach to both formal and informal writing, including Unit Notebooks—check it out!

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.

Extension Materials
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Exploring Interconnection

Teaching Tools

To teach this lesson step, refer to page X of the Lesson 5.5 Teaching Guide Locked .

Comics in the classroom? Check out our Graphic Biographies Lesson Plan for guidance on using Graphic Biographies.

As people connected across vast distances, they shared knowledge and ideas that changed the world.