Unit 3: Human Interactions with the Environment
Embedded Files
Impact Chapters: 2 and 3
ReadyGen Alignment: Module 3B
Text Alignment: Weather, Living Through a Natural Disaster, and On the Same Day in March
Unit Overview: What is our relationship with the environment? What makes a community unique?
In this unit, students will delve into the dynamic relationship between people and their environment within a community. They will investigate how the environment influences the community and how the community, in turn, impacts the environment. Additionally, students will explore the unique cultural aspects that shape a community's identity. They will learn about different cultures found in various communities in Colorado, the contributions of diverse peoples and cultures, and the ways in which immigration enriches a community's cultural fabric. By examining the similarities and differences between two communities, students will gain a deeper understanding of the connections that exist among communities worldwide. Throughout the unit, students will develop skills in reading and interpreting geographic tools, identifying geography-based problems, and characterizing regions based on physical, political, cultural, urban, and rural attributes.
Prepared Graduates:
Apply the process of inquiry to examine and analyze how historical knowledge is viewed, constructed, and interpreted.
Analyze historical time periods and patterns of continuity and change, through multiple perspectives, within and among cultures and societies.
Apply geographic representations and perspectives to analyze human movement, spatial patterns, systems, and the connections and relationships among them.
Examine the characteristics of places and regions, and the changing nature among geographic and human interactions.
Grade Level Expectation(s):
History and 2. Geography
Compare primary and secondary sources when explaining the past. (1.1)
Identify how people in the past influenced the development and interaction of different communities or regions. (1.2)
Use geographic tools to develop spatial thinking. (2.1)
Define the concept of region is developed through an examination of similarities and differences in places and communities (2.2)
The highlighted evidence outcomes are the priority for all students, serving as the essential concepts and skills. It is recommended that the remaining evidence outcomes listed be addressed as time allows, representing the full breadth of the curriculum.
Students Can (Evidence Outcomes):
Use a variety of primary sources such as artifacts, pictures, oral histories and documents, to help determine factual information about historical events. (1.1.b)
Describe the history, interaction, and contribution of various peoples and cultures, including African American, Latino, Asian American, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous Peoples, LGBTQ, and religious minorities that have lived in or migrated to a community or region and how that migration has influenced change and development. (1.2.c)
Read and interpret information from geographic tools and formulate geographic questions. (2.1.a)
Identify geography-based problems and examine the ways that people have tried to solve them. (2.1.d)
Observe and describe the physical, cultural, and human-made characteristics of a local region. For example: the Eastern Plains, San Luis Valley, Pikes Peak, Northwest, Front Range, South Central, Southwest, and Western Slope. (2.2.a)
Identify the factors that make a region unique. For example: cultural diversity, industry and agriculture, and landforms. (2.2.b)
Give examples of places that are similar and different from a local region. (2.2.c)
Characterize regions using different types of features such as physical, political, cultural, urban and rural attributes. (2.2.d)
Colorado Essential and Nature of Skills
Articulate the most effective kinds of historical sources to access information needed for understanding historic events (Media Literacy).
Ask questions to develop further understanding of reliability of various kinds of historical sources (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
Articulate the most effective geographic tools to access information needed for developing spatial thinking (Critical Thinking and Analysis).
Historical thinkers use primary sources to distinguish fact from fiction.
Historical thinkers distinguish fact from fiction when used to make informed decisions. For example: Consumers must critically analyze advertisements for facts, and nonfiction writers must verify historical accuracy.
Historical thinkers compare information provided by different historical sources about the past.
Historical thinkers infer the intended audience and purpose of a historical source from information within the source itself.
Historical thinkers use information about a historical source, including the author, date, place of origin, intended audience, and purpose to judge the extent to which the source is useful.
Historical thinkers make inferences about the intended audience and purpose of a primary source from information within the source itself.
Geographic thinkers use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their environmental characteristics.
Geographic thinkers analyze connections among places.
Geographic thinkers compare and contrast characteristics of regions when making decisions and choices such as where to send children to school, what part of town to live in, what type of climate suits personal needs, and what region of a country to visit.
Geographic thinkers can explain how natural and human-made catastrophic events in one place affect people living in other places.
Inquiry Questions
How do historical fact, opinion and fiction uniquely influence an individual's understanding of history?
How do historical thinkers determine the accuracy of history?
What types of questions do historians ask about the past?
Why do historians use multiple sources in studying history?
How have different groups of people both lived together and interacted with each other in the past?
What types of questions do people ask to learn about the past?
How has the region changed and yet remained the same over time?
Are regions in the world more similar or different?
Why do people describe regions using human or physical characteristics?
How do cultures lead to similarities and differences between regions?
Disciplinary, Informational, and Media Literacies
Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, structure, and context to guide the selection.
Use distinctions between fact and opinion to determine the credibility of multiple sources.
Academic Vocabulary and Language Expectations
atmosphere, deforestation, ecosystem, endangered, extinct, habitat, hydroelectric dam, natural disaster, ozone layer, technology, apartheid, artifact, citizen, culture, ethnic groups, folktale, heritage, oral tradition, pioneer, tolerance, reservoir, wastewater, space, pros, cons, temple, custom, festival, holiday, primary sources, secondary sources, documents, and migrate
Possible Assessments:
Inquiry Project from Chapter 2
Lesson Tests (1-3) and Chapter Overview Assessment Chapter 2
Lesson Tests (1-5) and Chapter Overview Assessment Chapter 3
Stop and Check, Check For Success, Report Your Findings, and Talk About It is throughout the lessons
More to Explore (Research Companion)
Connections In Action (Research Companion)
Instructional Resources & Notes:
Chapter 2 from Impact Lessons 1-3
Research Companion
Inquiry Journal
Explorer Magazine
Lesson Videos
Impact News
Chapter 3 from Impact Lessons 1-5
Research Companion
Inquiry Journal
Explorer Magazine
Lesson Videos
Impact News
Supplemental Resources
PBS Video and Primary Source Analysis: Western Water Wars
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