Big Idea

Belief systems influence peoples, cultures, and governments.

Unit Questions:

• How does environment challenge and change culture and community?

• How did belief in Islam unify and create a new identity for the people of the Arabian peninsula?

• What would be the lasting cultural, technological, and scientific legacy of the Caliphate?

Research Project: Bedouins

Overview: The people of the Arabian Peninsula were divided into many groups based on region, religion, and many other factors. Each group addressed the challenges of the desert in their own way. Those living next to the rare steady supply of water, built thick walled homes painted white to reflect the sun and traded their crops for the goods they needed; other, less fortunate groups, traveled around the desert guiding their herds to small pastures and surviving by staying on the move.

Your groups will study and create a presentation outlining the strategies of one of those most successful of these groups, the Bedouins.

Tasks:

1. Create a group of no more than four members.

2. Divide, as equally as possible, questions and duties between group members.

3. Research the answers to the following questions

4. Create a single group presentation displaying the information and relevant pictures/film/music. Work should be well organized and readable at any distance in the classroom, so if you need to use multiple slides to answer a single question, do it.

5. Be ready to present to the class by the due date.

Questions:

• Where do bedouins live and why?

• How do they get their food and what is it?

• What types of animals do they keep and what is their purpose(s)?

• How did they get water and how did they transport it?

• How did they survive harsh weather?

• What kind of clothing did they wear and why?

• What kind of homes did they live in and why?

Art and Comic of Historic Proportions, Islam

Overview: Islam is one of the world's largest religions with a dramatic effect on art, architecture, politics, and religious practice throughout the world. In order to understand what Islam is today, it is important to understand its earliest history and most important figures. To help you understand this unique story, you will illustrate Islam's story.

Tasks:

1. Create a comic strip, of at least ten panels, about Islam's legendary beginning.

2. Plan out each of your panels carefully. Don’t waste space of effort. Only show what you need to tell your story, but make sure you tell the whole story.

3. Each panel should include at least one text bubble.

4. All panels should include a background to show where it is takes place.

5. All styles of drawing are permitted, including detailed stick figures. BE CULTURALLY SENSITIVE: No pictures of Muhammad.

6. Drawings and writing must be neat

Include the Following:

• Muhammad’s childhood

  • Muhammad’s marriage to Khadijah

  • Call to prophethood

  • Muhammad’s ideas are rejected by Makkah

  • Muhammad meets the prophets

  • The Hijrah

  • Muhammad makes allies with the “People of the Book”

  • The surrender of Makkah

  • Last Sermon and death

Links:

• Collection of amazing Islamic arts

• Study guide for quiz #3 Arabian Peninsula and Islamic Empires

• Study guide for quiz #4 The Islamic Empires

• Study guide for quiz #5 The Achievements of the Islamic