National Geographic Learning Answer Key Unit 5

[Catherine Nicolo]

Asa designer by training, I like to give students tools they can use to answer questions and solve problems. One of the greatest tools all people have is our innate curiosity and creativity. So, when I had the opportunity to help develop a unit for third graders at the international school where I work in Switzerland, I knew I wanted the students to be able to guide their own learning.

Some students did not identify as strongly with the idea that they could be explorers. Miya and I shared stories of exploring when we were kids, about playing with friends and going on bike-ride adventures. It was important to tell our students it is OK to be curious. Curiosity forms the basis of the Explorer Mindset and allows us to layer on other traits like integrity and open-mindedness.

Even as we centered curiosity, we needed to integrate essential language and math content into the unit. We created connections between these core skills and the idea of exploration by discussing how writing nonfiction and using maps can assist explorers in their work. We asked whether creating a timeline could be a storytelling tool, then directed students to create their own timelines to understand better their position in place and time. We tried to make the content more tangible by introducing students to these real-life applications.

To add to the questions students thought of in school, we took a walk around the neighborhood. We split the students into teams and gave them a destination in the form of coordinates. As teams navigated to their destinations using a map, they stopped and photographed any natural or human sights that stoked their curiosity. These included tree bark, fungi, and the local train station. Overall, students preferred the forest to the rest of the neighborhood and spent more time there developing their exploration skills. It seems the natural world is still a place of wonder for human beings and a great setting to promote curiosity and the Explorer Mindset.

Human beings create, learn, share, and adapt to culture. The study of culture examines the socially transmitted beliefs, values, institutions, behaviors, traditions and way of life of a group of people; it also encompasses other cultural attributes and products, such as language, literature, music, arts and artifacts, and foods. Students come to understand that human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences, and they learn to see themselves both as individuals and as members of a particular culture that shares similarities with other cultural groups, but is also distinctive. In a multicultural, democratic society and globally connected world, students need to understand the multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points.

Cultures are dynamic and change over time. The study of culture prepares students to ask and answer questions such as: What is culture? What roles does culture play in human and societal development? What are the common characteristics across cultures? How is unity developed within and among cultures? What is the role of diversity and how is it maintained within a culture? How do various aspects of culture such as belief systems, religious faith, or political ideals, influence other parts of a culture such as its institutions or literature, music, and art? How does culture change over time to accommodate different ideas, and beliefs? How does cultural diffusion occur within and across communities, regions, and nations?

Through experience, observation, and reflection, students will identify elements of culture as well as similarities and differences among cultural groups across time and place. They will acquire knowledge and understanding of culture through multiple modes, including fiction and non-fiction, data analysis, meeting and conversing with peoples of divergent backgrounds, and completing research into the complexity of various cultural systems.

In schools, this theme typically appears in units and courses dealing with geography, history, sociology, and anthropology, as well as multicultural topics across the curriculum. Young learners can explore concepts of likenesses and differences among cultural groups through school subjects such as language arts, mathematics, science, music, and art. In social studies, learners interact with class members and discover culturally-based likenesses and differences. They begin to identify the cultural basis for some celebrations and ways of life in their community and in examples from across the world. In the middle grades, students begin to explore and ask questions about the nature of various cultures, and the development of cultures across time and place. They learn to analyze specific aspects of culture, such as language and beliefs, and the influence of culture on human behavior. As students progress through high school, they can understand and use complex cultural concepts such as adaptation, assimilation, acculturation, diffusion, and dissonance that are drawn from anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines to explain how culture and cultural systems function.

Studying the past makes it possible for us to understand the human story across time. The historical experiences of societies, peoples and nations reveal patterns of continuity and change. Historical analysis enables us to identify continuities over time in core institutions, values, ideals, and traditions, as well as processes that lead to change within societies and institutions, and that result in innovation and the development of new ideas, values and ways of life.

Knowledge and understanding of the past enable us to analyze the causes and consequences of events and developments, and to place these in the context of the institutions, values and beliefs of the periods in which they took place. Study of the past makes us aware of the ways in which human beings have viewed themselves, their societies and the wider world at different periods of time.

Knowing how to read, reconstruct and interpret the past allows us to answer questions such as: How do we learn about the past? How can we evaluate the usefulness and degree of reliability of different historical sources? What are the roots of our social, political and economic systems? What are our personal roots and how can they be viewed as part of human history? Why is the past important to us today? How has the world changed and how might it change in future? How do perspectives about the past differ, and to what extent do these differences inform contemporary ideas and actions?

Children in early grades learn to locate themselves in time and space. They gain experience with sequencing to establish a sense of order and time, and begin to understand the historical concepts that give meaning to the events that they study. The use of stories about the past can help children develop their understanding of ethical and moral issues as they learn about important events and developments. Children begin to recognize that stories can be told in different ways, and that individuals may hold divergent views about events in the past. They learn to offer explanations for why views differ, and thus develop the ability to defend interpretations based on evidence from multiple sources. They begin to understand the linkages between human decisions and consequences. The foundation is laid for the further development of historical knowledge, skills, and values in the middle grades.

Through a more formal study of history, students in the middle grades continue to expand their understanding of the past and are increasingly able to apply the research methods associated with historical inquiry. They develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for differences in perspectives on historical events and developments, recognizing that interpretations are influenced by individual experiences, sources selected, societal values, and cultural traditions. They are increasingly able to use multiple sources to build interpretations of past events and eras. High school students use historical methods of inquiry to engage in the examination of more sophisticated sources. They develop the skills needed to locate and analyze multiple sources, and to evaluate the historical accounts made by others. They build and defend interpretations that reconstruct the past, and draw on their knowledge of history to make informed choices and decisions in the present.

The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world. Students learn where people and places are located and why they are there. They examine the influence of physical systems, such as climate, weather and seasons, and natural resources, such as land and water, on human populations. They study the causes, patterns and effects of human settlement and migration, learn of the roles of different kinds of population centers in a society, and investigate the impact of human activities on the environment. This enables them to acquire a useful basis of knowledge for informed decision-making on issues arising from human-environmental relationships.

During their studies, learners develop an understanding of spatial perspectives, and examine changes in the relationship between peoples, places and environments. They study the communications and transportation networks that link different population centers, the reasons for these networks, and their impact. They identify the key social, economic and cultural characteristics of populations in different locations as they expand their knowledge of diverse peoples and places. Learners develop an understanding of the growth of national and global regions, as well as the technological advances that connect students to the world beyond their personal locations.

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