Big Era Three: Landscape Unit 3.2


		Complete Teaching Unit in PDF format

Farmers Around the World:
10,000 - 1500 BCE

Why This Unit?

This landscape unit surveys regions where early human farming communities were located around the world between 10,000 and 1500 BCE. It invites students to explore the scientific and archaeological background of domestication of plants and animals and the variety of food crops that provided human nutrition. The lessons in this unit are a classroom tool for comparing various aspects of early farming communities around the world in terms of their location, latitude, type of climate, crops raised, time period, and other characteristics.

The lessons show how geography skills and knowledge can be integrated into the study of world history through a correlation activity involving several types of content maps and timelines. Students will acquire historical thinking skills by working with evidence from archaeological sites of early farming communities in Afroeurasia, the Americas, and Australia. The lesson activities take students from the global to the regional and local levels, then back to the global for comparison and analysis. The lessons lead students beyond the usual focus on Southwest Asia, offering a more global approach to the origins and spread of agriculture.

Unit Objectives

Upon completing this unit, students will be able to:

1. Locate on a world map places where farming occurred between 10,000 and 1500 BCE.

2. Describe the characteristics of physical environments where settled farming communities developed between 10,000 and 1500 BCE.

3. List plants and animals that were domesticated in different places around the world and relate them to specific locations.

4. Describe how early farmers modified their environment.

5. Give examples of archaeological evidence of farming from the Americas, Australia, and Afroeurasia.

6. Trace the spread of agriculture in various locations across the globe.

7. Describe some effects of farming on human societies.

Time and Materials

Time:
This lesson takes two class periods of 50 minutes each to complete.

Materials:

Classroom world atlases with climate, vegetation, and physical maps.
Student Handouts
Complete Teaching Unit in PDF format

Table of Contents

Why This Unit?	2
Unit Objectives	2
Time and Materials	2
Authors	3
The Historical Context	3
This Unit in the Big Era Timeline	4
Lesson One: Map Correlations with Early Farming Regions and Chronology	5
Lesson Two: Investigating Archeological Sites of Early Farming and Herding Around the World	9
Lesson Three: Understanding Domestication of Wild Plant Species	31
Lesson Four: Three Sisters-Complete Nutrition From One Field	36
This Unit and the Three Essential Questions	39
This Unit and the Seven Key Themes	39
This Unit and the Standards in Historical Thinking	39
Resources	40
Correlations to National and State Standards and to Textbooks	40
Conceptual Link to Other Teaching Units	42
Complete Teaching Unit in PDF Format

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