Origins Project:

Early Humans, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic Revolution, Mesopotamia and Egypt

Students will begin with a look at big history to understand the importance of scale and the role of humans in the history of the world and the universe.

Our Early Humans unit will explore how we know anything about our hominid ancestors and how they developed.  They will focus on the role of collective learning and foraging (hunting and gathering) for early modern humans.  They will research a useful tool and create an infomercial in order to demonstrate their understanding of this way of life and the impact of tools (and tinkering)

Students will explore why agriculture was developed in the neolithic revolution and the impact it had on human development.  They will explore the positive and negative impacts and use systems thinking tools to model their understanding.

Finally, we describe the key elements of civilizations and explore two early river civilizations.  We will focus on key historical questions related to Mesopotamia(Hammurabi’s Code) and Egypt (Role of the Nile)

Throughout the class students will be working on key historical skills: creating timelines, using maps, reading primary and secondary sources like a historian, conducting research and taking effective notes, presenting research, and writing historical arguments.

Essential Questions: 

How did humans develop?

How did early humans live?

Was the neolithic revolution a good idea?

How did civilizations begin?