The Silk Roads
Teacher Resources
Lesson Guide
This guide includes all the usual stuff on timing and sample answers, but it will be especially useful as you prepare to teach the Foraging Simulation below!
Diverse Perspectives on the Silk Roads: The Sogdians
OER Project partnered with NYU to learn more about the Silk Roads. Check out this presentation.
Driving Question: How have the trade routes known as the Silk Roads expanded and contracted over time?
Despite the name, the Silk Roads carried much more than silk, and they consisted of much more than roads. Intricate networks of trade and many different merchants traveling over land and sea moved goods across Afro-Eurasia. But they also carried more than just material goods. The Silk Roads brought technologies, cultures, and religions to new places.
Learning Objectives:
- Analyze how the collapse and recovery of empires affected the spread of belief systems and the expansion of trade networks like the Silk Roads.
- Use the historical thinking practice of continuity and change over time to evaluate historical events and processes.
Vocab Terms:
What did Europeans think about Marco Polo and his discoveries? Use your critical-thinking skills to find out.
As with most simulation activities, this one requires a bit of prep work (but the payoff is worth it!). Make sure to check out the Lesson Guide ahead of time so you can get everything you need. In particular, don’t forget to download the Silk Roads Goods Cards and the Regional Guide Cards in advance!
How were the Silk Roads responsible for connecting the diverse societies of Afro-Eurasia? Find out in the article below and then explore further in the simulation.
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Guiding Questions
Blog post: Who Really Built the Silk Roads? This blog post reveals the middlemen who helped keep the Silk Roads alive as the Roman and Han Empires died.
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Guiding Questions
The Silk Roads didn’t collapse after the fall of the Han Dynasty. They continued to tie together local networks and boost economic production across Asia.
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Guiding Questions
One of the best ways to learn is by teaching someone else. In this quick closing activity, you’ll test your classmate’s knowledge about the Silk Roads.
Want to hear from an expert about why some societies collapse? Listen to this short clip from the Unknowns podcast with David Christian.
Use these sources to see how trade affected communities by examining words written by the people involved.
