State Standards

Five Basic Standards for Social Studies

1. Choices have consequences.

2. Individuals have rights and responsibilities.

3. Societies are shaped by beliefs, idea, and diversity.

4. Societies experience continuity and change over time.

5. Relationships between people, place, idea, and environments are dynamic.

Units of Study for 7th Grade Geography

Introduction to Geography

Branches of Geography physical geography, human geography

Essential Elements the world in spatial terms, places and regions, physical systems, human systems, environment and society, the uses of geography, the five themes of geography

Tools of Geography mapping, absolute location, relative location, technology of geography, spatial organization

Physical Geography: The Earth and Landforms

The Earth surface forces, physical features that create regions, uses of physical geography, Earth’s structure, subterranean forces, plate tectonics theory, Ring of Fire

Water importance of water, the water cycle, supply and scarcity, water as a resource

Climate factors of weather and climate, major climate zones, climate change within regions, plant and animal life

Physical Geography: Physical Systems

The Earth in Space orbit, rotation, revolution, sun, planets, seasons

Natural Environments distribution of ecosystems, forest, desert, grassland, mountain, aquatic

Resources natural, renewable, non-renewable, patterns of resources, scarcity and abundance of resources, energy

Human Geography: Culture

Development of Culture traits, culture groups, language, food, customs, religion, traditions, history, ways of life

Cultural Regions race, religion, ethnicities, languages, custom and tradition, cultural diversity, multiculturalism, cultural change and diffusion

Population population patterns, distribution, density, urban, rural, population growth, demographics, movement, immigration, migration

Human Geography: Government, Economics, and Religion

Political Systems democracies, monarchies, dictatorships, oligarchies, military states

Economic Systems traditional, command, market, mixed market, communism, socialism, developed, developing, and emerging economies

Religions role of religious beliefs, impact of religion on development, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, etc.

Human Interactions with the Earth and Environment

Interconnectedness significance of physical systems in supporting life, relationships between physical and human systems, human system impact on physical systems

Interaction adaptation, industrialization, technology, energy, resources, consumption, production, waste

Implication human adaptation, changing the physical environment, pollution, climate change, globalization

Units of Study for 7th Grade Kansas History

Early Peoples, Exploration, and Drawing Boundaries (7000 BCE – 1854 CE)

Ideas contrasting cultures, exploration, settlement, adaptation, trade

People/Roles indigenous American Indians of the Kansas region, emigrant American Indians, Francisco Coronado, Zebulon Pike, William Becknell, Stephen Long

Places/Institutions Plains, Louisiana Territory, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, forts, missions

Events first European contact, Louisiana Purchase, Corps of Discovery, Santa Fe Trail, Oregon Trail, Indian Removal Act, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Kansas- Nebraska Act

Statehood and the Civil War (1854 – 1865)

Ideas popular sovereignty, slavery and abolition, underground railroad, transportation/communication, state constitutions, Free State Movement

People/Roles Stephen Douglas, Henry Ward Beecher, Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, James Lane, Charles Robinson, Clarina Nichols, Jayhawkers, Border Ruffians, William Quantrill, Charles Sumner, New England Emigrant Aid Society

Places/Institutions Atchison, Lawrence, Topeka, Lecompton, Doniphan County, Douglas County, Linn County, Osawatomie,

Events Kansas-Nebraska Act, Bogus legislature, Bleeding Kansas, Pony Express, Civil War, statehood, Battle of Mine Creek, Quantrill’s Raid, Order #11

Kansas: To the Stars through Difficulty (1865 – 1890s)

Ideas homesteading, immigration, romantic image of the West, promotion and growth of agriculture, railroads

People/Roles Buffalo Soldiers, Satanta, Cyrus K. Holliday, Fred Harvey, Joseph McCoy, Exodusters, ethnic and religious immigrants

Places/Institutions Abilene, Ellsworth, Dodge City, Nicodemus, Topeka, Atchison, Leavenworth, Wichita

Events Homestead Act, Medicine Lodge Treaty, Sand Creek Massacre, cattle drives, land grant universities

Progress and Reform (1860s – 1920s)

Ideas industrialization, specialization, transportation, communication, prohibition, populism, progressivism, suffrage movements, socialism

People/Roles Samuel Crumbine, Charles Sheldon, Carry Nation, Mary Lease, Karl Menninger, Walter Chrysler, Walter and Olive Beech, Clyde Cessna, William Allen White, Kate Richards O’Hare

Places/Institutions Emporia, Medicine Lodge, Girard, Pittsburg

Events national prohibition, World War I, Legislative War, Appeal to Reason, coal miner strikes, discovery of oil/gas

Good Times and Bad (1920s – 1940s)

Ideas distribution of wealth and resources, agricultural conservation, growth of entertainment

People/Roles Charles Curtis, Arthur Capper, Langston Hughes, Amelia Earhart, James Naismith, Herbert Hoover, Alf Landon, Dwight Eisenhower, John Stewart Curry

Places/Institutions Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lawrence, Topeka, Abilene

Events Great Depression, World War II, Stock Market Crash, Dust Bowl, New Deal

Kansas and a Changing World (1950’s – 2000s)

Ideas civil rights, Cold War, Communism, rise of interstate transportation

People/Roles Oliver Brown, Charles Scott, Thurgood Marshall, Harry Colmery, Gordon Parks, Robert Dole, Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Georgia Neese Clark, Dwight Eisenhower

Places/Institution Korea, Vietnam, Fort Scott, Topeka, Ogallala Aquifer

Events popularity of television, Korean War, floods of 1951, Brown v Topeka Board of Education, Dockum Drug sit-in, space race, Vietnam, flood control system, interstate highways

Kansas and a Modern World (1970s – Present)

Ideas globalization, rural depopulation, energy, Kansas economy, Kansas government

People/Roles Black Bear Bosin, Bill Kurtis, astronauts, Lynette Woodard, Gayle Sayers, Barry Sanders, Jack Kilby, Kathleen Sebelius

Places/Institutions Wichita, Kansas City, Topeka

Events current and critical issues