Global Studies Test Feedback

[Brian McGurk]

Hello 8th Graders,

Your Why Civilizations Rise & Fall tests have been scored and entered in JMC.  You should've received an email that gave you your score out of 25.  If you so wish, talk with me about retake opportunities.  Most of you did quite well.  Below are reasons why you may have missed points on the short answer and essential/essay questions.

• For the short answers, you may have just simply not known the answer, which means study more using video lessons, blog posts, and class discussions.
• In some cases you may not have written complete sentences.  
• You may not have written at least a full paragraph (5-7 complete sentences).
• You may not have fully answered the questions by explaining your answers that you listed.
• Also, it’s all about specific examples.  When answering the EQs, always use specific examples from video lessons, projects, or class discussions to support (back up) your answers.

Below are student examples for the short answer and essential/essay question portion.  These are good comparisons for your answers to see how you could improve.  There were many great answers to choose from.  Let me know if you have any questions.

List two major threats to the Anasazi. Next, explain why these threats are still problems for today’s world. — Worth 2 points

1. Drought was a major threat for the Anasazi because without any rain their crops wouldn't grow. And the crops are their food source, so without food people can't survive. Today we still have this problem but we have found ways to stay strong throughout a drought.

2. Human population was growing faster then their food rate. This caused some people to starve to death because there wasn't enough food for everyone because the population was greater then food production. Today we do see this problem as often as humans are waiting longer to have children and have other reasons why not to have children at a younger age.

List and explain three reasons why civilizations (human societies) fall (collapse). — Worth 3 points

1. Greed, because people want power, and they would do almost anything to obtain superiority. Even if that means they will have to use violence, and when someone wants everything that takes away from people who deserve/need the objective.

2. The lack of knowledge, because we need the know how to survive. If we didn't know how to plant crops we wouldn't be able to have large communities because we wouldn't be able to feed everyone. If we didn't know what plants were edible and the ones that weren't we would likely die.

3. Disease. We can't control what Illnesses that go around, and sometimes we simply don't have a cure. Look at the Black Plague and how many people it killed. Disease can wipeout civilizations.

EQ1 — Why do civilizations rise and fall? -- Worth 2 points

Civilizations rise when they have plenty of resources to supply thier people. But when this happens, more people start moving to this area or more poeple show up because it has plenty of resources. Then the population grows faster than the resources can recover. After this, people start to starve or move away like the Anasazi. They fall because they became to dependent on one resource.

Civilizations rise and fall for a variety of reasons. One is that they over populate which causes them to not be able to feed everyone. Climate change which is bad for their crops. Disease which can be air born and kill a lot of people. In conclusion civilizations fall because people mostly don't pay attention to their surroundings (hubris and cultural beliefs affect their judgement) and they think everything is going to be okay.

EQ2 — How should society apply the five themes of geography? -- Worth 2 points

Society should apply human environment interaction. We must use this to maintain enough resources for the population. We especially should because of our rapidly growing growing population. If we don't, this could lead to violence for the resources that we need, and could result in deaths. Society should apply this theme to prevent this from happening.

Society should apply the theme of geography, human-environment interaction. Humans shouldn't take advantage of the earth's fine qualities, like rich dirt. We shouldn't be selfish like the Anasazi, and grow a bunch of corn all the time. We should give the earth a break and just be nice to it. That's how society should apply a theme of geography.

-Mr. McGurk