a. Physical and political geography of Europe
1. On a physical map of the world, use cardinal directions, map scales, key/legend, and title to locate Europe. Locate important physical features (e.g. the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea; Lake Baikal, the Volga, Danube, Ural, Rhine, Elbe, Seine, Po, and Thames Rivers; the Alps, Pyrenees, and Balkan Mountains). Use other kinds of maps (e.g., landform, population, climate) to determine important characteristics of this region.
2. On a political map of the region, demonstrate map reading skills to distinguish countries, capitals, and other cities and to describe their absolute location (using latitude and longitude coordinates) and relative location (relationship to other countries, cities, or bodies of water); use knowledge of maps to complement information gained from text about a city, country or region.
3. Explain how absolute and relative locations, major physical characteristics, climate and natural resources in this region have influenced settlement patterns, population size, and economies of the countries.
4. Identify what time zones are, when and how the precise measurement of longitude was scientifically and historically determined, the function and location of the International Date Line, and the function of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England, and give examples of differences in time in countries in different parts of the world. For example, note that Russia has 11 time zones.
b. Ancient and Classical Greece, c. 1200–300 BCE
Supporting Question: How does the democracy of Athens compare to the democracies of today?
1. On a historical map of the Mediterranean area, locate Greece and trace the extent of its influence from c. 1200 to 300 BCE.
2. Explain how the geographical location of ancient Athens and other city-states such as Corinth and Sparta contributed to their role in maritime trade, colonies in the Mediterranean, and the expansion of their cultural influence.
3. Explain the democratic political concepts developed in ancient Greece.
a. the “polis” or city-state
b. civic participation and voting rights
c. legislative bodies d. constitution writing e. rule of law
4. Compare and contrast life in Athens and Sparta, including the status and role of women and enslaved people in the two city-states.
5. Analyze the causes, and consequences of the Persian Wars between Greek city-states and the Persian Empire (490–480 BCE), the Peloponnesian Wars between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BCE), and the conquests of Alexander the Great in Asia (c.336–331BCE).
6. Give examples of Greek gods and goddesses, heroes, and events; explain the persistence of terms from Greek and Roman mythology in modern English and other European languages (e.g., Pandora’s box, a Herculean task, the wrath of Achilles, Amazon, Olympics, marathon, narcissism).
7. Identify the major accomplishments of the ancient Greeks by researching and reporting on one of the following:
a. a scientist or mathematician (e.g., Thales, Pythagoras, Euclid, or Hippocrates)
b. a philosopher (e.g., Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle), historian (e.g., Herodotus or Thucydides), poet or dramatist (e.g., Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, or Euripides)
c. architecture (e.g., the Parthenon, the Acropolis, and the Temple of Apollo)
d. writing (e.g., development of the first complete alphabet with symbols for consonants and vowels)
e. art (e.g., the development of ideals of beauty and proportions in the human body in sculpture or the depiction of myths and heroes in vase painting)
c. Ancient and Classical Rome, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire, c. 500 BCE–500 CE
Supporting Questions: What was the influence and legacy of the Roman Empire on the conquered peoples in the territory it controlled?
1. Locate Rome on a map, trace the expansion of the Roman Empire to 500 CE and explain how Rome’s location contributed to its political power in the Mediterranean and beyond.
2. Describe the rise of the Roman Republic, its government, including separation of powers, rule of law, representative government, and the notion of civic duty.
3. Describe the influence of Julius Caesar and Augustus in Rome’s transition from a republic to an empire and explain the reasons for the growth and long life of the Roman Empire.
a. Military organization, tactics, and conquests; and decentralized administration
b. the purpose and functions of taxes
c. the promotion of economic growth through the use of a standard currency, road construction, and the protection of trade routes and the benefits of a Pax Romana
4. Describe the characteristics of the system of classes and slavery under the Romans.
5. Explain how inner forces (e.g., the rise of autonomous military powers, political corruption, and economic and political instability) and external forces (shrinking trade, invasions from northern tribes) led to the disintegration of the Roman Empire.
6. Describe the contribution of the Romans to architecture, engineering, and technology (e.g., roads, bridges, arenas, baths, aqueducts, central heating, plumbing, and sanitation).
7. Explain the spread and influence of the Roman alphabet and the Latin language, and the role of Latin and Greek in scientific and academic vocabulary today.
8. Describe how scientific, philosophical, and aesthetic ideas diffused throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa as a result of trade, migration, conquest, and colonization.