Bozeman Public Schools
Social Studies Curriculum
6th Grade
Overarching Essential Question: Who am I, how did I get here, and how will I proceed as an
informed and conscientious (productive) citizen of our world?
Essential Understandings: By the end of 6th grade, all students understand:
• how to effectively use a map (direction, scale, legend, grid),
• how we construct knowledge of the past,
• human development as revealed through the fossil record to order human origins,
• geography’s influence on human migration, settlement and development,
• river civilizations to conceptualize origins of social organization,
• Classical civilizations reveal how the past has influenced the present,
• religious traditions that originated in the ancient world and understand how the past has
influenced the present.
Essential Skills: Throughout 6th grade, students:
• Use tools for historic thinking (timelines, primary sources, evaluation of bias, analysis)
• Apply the steps of an inquiry process (I.e., identify question or problem, locate and evaluate
potential resources, gather and synthesize information, create a new product, and evaluate
product and process).
• Assess the quality of information (e.g., primary or secondary sources, point of view and
embedded values of the author).
• Interpret and apply information to support conclusions and use group decision-making
strategies to solve problems in real world situations (e.g., school elections, community
projects, conflict resolution, role playing scenarios).
• Develop habits of mind for historical thinking (See NCHE Habits of Mind).
Content Standards: The content standards, history, civics, geography, economics and
culture/diversity, represent five major strands within the overarching umbrella of social studies.
In 6th grade, these five strands encompass the time period from human origins to the end of the
Roman Republic.
Process Standards: Process standards are embedded within the content standards of history,
civics, geography, history, economics and culture/diversity. These standards reflect student
understanding of how to access, synthesize, and evaluate information to communicate and apply
social studies knowledge to real world situations.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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(H) History: Students understand the effects of time, continuity, and change on historical and
future perspectives and relationships.
H1.0 Students understand that early hominids developed in Africa.
H1.1 Students understand types of evidence and methods of investigation that
anthropologists, archaeologists, and other scholars have used to reconstruct early human
evolution and cultural development.
Example: Students engage in simulations of archaeological activity that reveal
the basics of the discipline and infer from observation. Project Archaeology has
many ideas.
H1.2 Students trace the approximate chronology, sequence and territorial range of early
hominid evolution in Africa, Europe and Asia from Australopithecus to Neanderthal.
(Australopithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Neanderthal)
Example: Students create a timeline covering 5MYA to present and illustrate it
with characteristics of hunter-gatherer communities including tool kits, shelter,
clothing, diet and use of fire.
H. 2.0 Students understand that humans experimented with agriculture in order to
stabilize food sources, develop communities and strengthen political power.
H2.1 Students infer from archaeological evidence the technology, social organization,
occupational specializations, social class divisions and cultural life of settled farming
communities in Southwest Asia.
Example: Catal Huyuk, Project Archaeology – food, village simulations
H. 3.0 Students understand that Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus valley became centers
of dense population and urbanization in the fourth and third millennia BCE due to
geographic advantages like fresh water sources, natural resources and, to a more varied
degree, natural protection.
H3.1 Students will compare the character of urban development in Mesopotamia, Egypt
and Indus valley including the emergence of social hierarchies and occupational
specializations.
H3.2 Students compare differences in tasks that urban women and men performed.
H. 4.0 Students understand that civilization emerged in northern China in the second
millennium BCE due to geographic advantages like fresh water sources, natural resources
and, to a more varied degree, natural protection.
H. 4.1Students infer from archaeological evidence the character of early Chinese urban
societies and compares these with earlier societies in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus
valleys.
H. 5.0 Students understand that new centers of agrarian society arose as political powers in
the third and second millennia BCE due to new seafaring technologies, trade routes and
population centers.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
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Updated January 21, 2010
H. 5.1 Students analyze how urban civilization emerged on Crete and evaluate its cultural
achievements.
H. 5.2 Students understand the role of trade and transportation making the location of
Crete significant.
H. 6.0 Students understand that population movement from western and Central Asia
affected peoples of India, China, Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region through
cooperation and conflict.
H. 6.1 Students define pastoralism as a specialized way of life, in contrast to urbanism,
and explain how the climate and geography of Central Asia were linked to the rise of
pastoral societies on the steppes.
Example: rise of horse culture, building of the Great Wall, Aryan invasion of
Indus gives rise to Hinduism
H. 6.2 Students explain the concept of kinship as the basis of social organization among
pastoral peoples and compare the structure of kinship-based societies with that of
agrarian states.
Example: Understand Aryan culture, tribal societies to today, how do people
identify – Afghani or Waziri?
H. 7.0 Students understand that throughout Southwest Asia and Egypt militarization in the
second millennium BCE resulted in social and cultural changes such as the transfer of
technology, distribution of wealth and the emergence of new kingdoms.
H. 7.1 Students describe the spread of Egyptian power into Nubia and Southwest Asia
under the New Kingdom and assess the factors that made Egyptian expansion possible.
Example: reign of Ramses II, Hatshepsut; describe how the Second Intermediate
Period invasions provided cultural exchange (iron and chariots) that gave New
Kingdom rulers tools of conquest.
H. 8.0 Students understand that urban society expanded in the Aegean region as a result of
Mycenaean dominance and conquest.
H. 8.1 Students describe the political and social organization of the Mycenaean Greeks as
revealed in the archaeological and written record.
H. 8.2 Students understand Mycenae conquered the Minoans and fought in Troy.
Example: Conquest of Crete, Trojan War – Homer
H. 9.0 Students understand that development of new political and cultural patterns in
northern India in the second millennium BCE was due to invasion of Aryans from the
north and the resulting blend of cultures.
H. 9.1 The students analyze possible causes of the decline in the collapse and change of
the Indus valley civilization.
Example: Urban layout of Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa disappears, birth of
Hinduism.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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H. 10.0 Students understand that major trends in Eurasia and Africa from 4000 to 500
BCE include new social organizations, new technologies and new cultures.
H. 10.1 Students explain the criteria that have been used to define “civilization.”
H10.2 Students understand fundamental differences between civilizations and other
forms of social organizations, notably hunter-gatherer bands, Neolithic agricultural
societies and pastoral nomadic societies.
H.10.3 Students describe how new ideas, products, techniques and institutions spread
from one region to another.
H10.4 Students analyze conditions under which peoples assimilated or rejected new
things or adapted them to prevailing cultural traditions.
Examples: Writing systems, metal, religious beliefs, forms of governance…
H. 11.0 Students understand that state building, trade and migrations led to increasingly
complex interrelations among people in the Mediterranean basin and Southwest Asia.
H. 11.1 Students explain the fundamentals of iron-making technology and analyze the
early significance of iron tools and weapons in Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean
region.
Examples: Rise of Assyria, Second Intermediate Period, and Egyptian imperial
power under New Kingdom rulers.
H. 11.2 Students describe the emergence of Greek city-states in the Aegean region and
political, social and legal character of the polis.
Examples: Origin of Olympic Games, Iliad, and Peloponnesian Wars
H. 12.0 Students understand that the achievements in Athens and other Aegean city-states
include democratic forms of governance.
H.12.1 Students understand the principles of demo – cracy.
H.12.1 Students compare Athenian democracy with the military aristocracy of Sparta.
H.12.2 Students assess the importance of Greek ideas about democracy and citizenship
for the development of Western political thought and institutions.
H.13.0 Students understand that the expansion of the Persian Empire resulted in conflicts
with the Greeks that lead to the Golden Age.
H.13.1 Students describe the major events of the wars between Persia and the Greek citystates and reasons why the Persians failed to conquer the Aegean region.
Example: Herodotus,
H. 13.2 Students understand how the rise of the Delian League as a response to the
Persian wars led to the Golden Age of Athens and the Peloponnesian wars.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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H.14.0 Students understand that Alexander the Great’s conquests led to an interregional
character for societies and cultures known as Hellenism.
H.14.1 Students assess Alexander’s achievements as a military and political leader and
analyze why the empire broke up into successor kingdoms.
Example: Plutarch’s bio
H. 15.0 Students understand that unification of the Mediterranean basin was caused by
Roman expansion and rule from fifth century BCE to the second century CE.
H.15.1 Students describe the political and social institutions of the Roman republic and
analyze why Rome was transformed from a republic to empire.
H. 16.0 Students understand that China became unified under the early imperial dynasties.
H.16.1 Students assess the policies and achievements of the Qin emperor She Huangdi in
establishing a unified imperial realm.
H. 17.0 Students understand that religious and cultural developments in India in the era of
the Mauryan Empire resulted in a unified India and the spread of Buddhism.
H.17.1 Students explain the growth of the Mauryan Empire in the context of rivalries
among Indian States.
H.17.2 Students evaluate achievements of the emperor Asoka and assess his contribution
to the expansion of Buddhism in India.
H.18.0 Students understand that ancient civilizations existed in the Western Hemisphere.
(i.e. Olmec, Aztec, Maya, Inca, Mound Builder [Cahokia], Anasazi)
H.18.1 Students understand each civilization developed in response to natural resource
availablility.
Example: http://www.fieldmuseum.org/ancientamericas/about.asp
http://www.fieldmuseum.org/ancientamericas/interactives.asp
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/subjects/ancientamerica.htm
(C) Civics: Students analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and
governance to understand the operation of government and to demonstrate civic responsibility.
Essential Question(s):
• What is the best relationship between a government and the people it governs?
• Why do civic life, politics, and government exist and how does each fulfill human needs?
(Primary EQ: Why have a government?)
• Why are some governments better than others?
C.1.0 Students understand changes in social structure, specifically in governance, required
in large agricultural settlements.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
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C.1.1 Students understand the need for a process of decision making in communities and
the emergence of early governing systems such as village elders and kings.
Example: Village elders simulation, Epic of Gilgamesh (Social Systems District
Assessment question #3)
C. 2.0 Students understand the variety of characteristics of social hierarchies and
governance in the emerging river civilizations.
C 2.1 Students compare authoritarian kingship, resulting from military dominance, to
divine kingship resulting from belief systems in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus
valley.
C. 2.2 Students describe the royal government under the Shang Dynasty and development
of social hierarchy.
C. 3.0 Students understand the connection of religious belief systems in ancient Egypt and
how they legitimized the political and social order.
C. 3.1 Students analyze Egyptian creation stories concerning Isis and Osiris for the
purpose of determining the status of Egyptian pharaohs.
C.3.2 Students identify the role of the pharaohs in maintaining political and social order.
C. 4.0 Students understand major trends in Eurasia and Africa from 4000 to 500 BCE.
C. 4.1 The student defines ‘patriarchal society’ and analyzes ways in which the legal and
customary position of women may have changed in early civilizations.
Example: Hammurabi, Twelve Tablets of Rome
C. 4.2 The student defines ‘patriarchal society’ and analyzes ways in which the legal and
customary position of outsiders may have changed in early civilizations.
Example: Slave status, Athenian citizenship contrasted with Roman citizenship
C. 5.0 Students understand the achievements and limitations of the democratic institutions
that developed in Athens and other Aegean city-states.
C. 5.1 Students explain hierarchical relationships within Greek society and analyze the
civic, economic and social tasks that men and women of different classes performed.
C. 5.2 Students describe the changing political institutions of Athens in the 6th and 5th
centuries BCE and analyze the influence of political thought on public life.
Examples: Explain aristocracy, tyranny of Pisistratus, and anarchy as political
precursors to demo-cracy. Contrast with Plato’s meritocracy.
(G): Geography Students apply geographic knowledge and skills (e.g., location, place,
human/environment interactions, movement, and regions).
Essential Question(s):
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
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•
•
•
•
•
Where am I and how do I explain where I am? (need to wordsmith)
How does place drive the decisions people make?
How do people interact with their environments?
What are the causes and effects of human movement?
What makes places similar and different?
G.1.0 The student indentifies areas where farming communities appeared and analyze the
environmental factors that made possible experiments with farming in these regions.
(NCGE standard 2,4,8,9,11,12,13,15,17)
G.1.1 Students identify Southwest Asia, the Nile valley, the Indus Valley, the Huang He
and Yangtze valleys, as well as regions of the Americas on maps.
Example: Create a map labeling early agricultural areas and identify the staple
crop that made settlement in the area possible. (Social Systems District
Assessment question #2)
G. 1.2 Students analyze how the natural environments of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and
Indus differ and how these factors shaped the early development of these river
civilizations.
G. 1.3 Students compare the climate and geography of the Huang He valley with the
environments of Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus valley.
G. 2.0 Students understand how population movements from western and Central Asia
affected peoples of India, China, Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean region. (NCGE
standards 3,8,11,13)
G. 2.1 Students explain how the climate and geography of Central Asia were linked to the
rise of pastoral societies on the steppes.
G. 3.0 Students understand major trends in Eurasia and Africa from 4000 to 500 BCE.
G. 3.1 Students explain why geographic, environmental and economic conditions favored
hunter-gatherer, pastoral and small-scale agricultural ways of life rather that urban
civilization I many parts of the world. (NCGE standards 3,4,6,8,9)
G. 4.0 Students understand state building, trade and migrations that led to increasingly
complex interrelations among people in the Mediterranean basin and Southwest Asia.
G. 4.1 Students describe the extant of the Assyrian and New Babylonian empires and
assess the sources of their power and wealth.
Examples: make a map
G. 4.2 Students explain the patterns of Phoenician trade and culture in the Mediterranean
basin.
Examples: Seeds of Carthage are planted
G. 5.0 Students understand the causes and consequences of the unification of the
Mediterranean basin under Roman rule.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
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G. 5.1 Students describe the major phases in expansion of the empire through the 1st
century CE.
Examples: Make a map
G. 6.0 Students understand how China became unified under the early imperial dynasties.
G. 6.1 Students analyze the significance of the trans-Eurasian Silk Road during the period
of the Han dynasty and the Roman Empire.
G. 7.0 Students understand how to use maps to acquire, process and report information
from a spatial perspective. (NGCE standard 1)
(E): Economics Students make informed decisions based on an understanding of the economic
principles of production, distribution, exchange, and consumption.
Essential Questions:
• Why do people and nations trade?
• How does something acquire value?
• Note: Include in ELEs How do price and supply and demand influence each other? What are
markets and how do they work?
• How do economic systems affect individuals, communities, societies and the world?
• What role should government play in economic systems?
• Which economic systems work best?
• How does technology drive change?
E.1.0 The student analyzes differences between hunter-gather and agrarian societies in
economic organization.
E1.1 Students understand settlement leads to specialization of labor and social class
divisions.
Example: Village simulations, Standard of Ur, Native American societies
E. 2.0 The student defines ‘patriarchal society’ and analyzes ways in which the legal and
customary position of various social classes may have changed in early civilizations.
E2.1 Students understand the variety of forms slavery, peasantry and aristocracy took in
early river civilizations.
E. 3.0 Students understand the causes and consequences of the unification of the
Mediterranean basin under Roman rule.
E. 3.1 Students analyze how Roman unity contributed to the growth of trade among the
lands of the Mediterranean basin.
E. 4.0 Students understand major global trends from 1000 to 300 BCE.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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E. 4.1 Students compare institutions of slavery or other forms of coerced labor in the Han
Empire, the Mauryan Empire, the Greek city-states and the Roman Empire
(D): Culture & Diversity- Students demonstrate an understanding of the impact of human
interaction and cultural diversity on societies.
Essential Questions:
• What is culture, why is it important?
• Who should decide what “culture” and “cultured” are?
• Is there such a thing as cultural superiority? Why?
• How do cultural expressions (including literature, art, architecture, music, technology)
shape history?
• How does cultural diversity impact a society?
• What happens when cultures converge or collide?
• What is morality and ethics?
• Who are the heroes and villains and what do they reveal about a culture?
• In what ways do religion, beliefs, values and/or spirituality contribute to progress, regress,
or stagnation in society?
D.1.0 Students understand how Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus valley became centers
of cultural innovation in the fourth and third centuries BCE.
D.1.1 The student compares early writing systems in Mesopotamia, Egypt and the
Phoenician cultures and how writing systems shaped political, legal, religious and
cultural life.
Example: By writing in cuneiform, hieroglyphics and Phonecian scripts students
experience the social and intellectual consequences and potentials of these
systems. Also by understanding the differences in clay tablets, papyrus and
parchment students appreciate preservation and archaeological concerns.
D1.2 The student describes architectural, artistic, technological and scientific
achievements of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus valley in the fourth and third
centuries BCE.
Examples: Compare ziggurats, pyramid evolution, gated cities for
architecture. Compare Mesopotamian and Egyptian imagery. Compare
city planning of the Indus and Mesopotamia. Compare views of the
cosmos.
D.2.0 Students understand the social and cultural effects that militarization and the
emergence of new kingdoms had on peoples of Southwest Asia and Egypt in the second
millennium BCE.
D. 2.1 Students analyze ways in which chariot transportation and warfare affected
Southwest Asian societies.
D. 2.2 Students explain the religious ideas of Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) and understand
the viewpoint that Atonism was an early form of monotheism.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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D 3.0 Students understand how urban society expanded in the Aegean region in the era of
Mycenaean dominance.
D. 3.1 Students assess the cultural influences of Egypt, Minoan Crete and Southwest
Asian societies on Mycenaeans.
Example: Bronze work, mask of Agamemnon, blending of myths – Heracles
(Mycenaean), Zeus (Asia Minor), Aphrodite (Crete) to form the beginnings of the
Classical Greek pantheon. Also the influence of Egyptian architecture arrives in
Greece.
D. 4.0 Students understand the development of new political and cultural patterns in
northern India in the second millennium BCE.
D. 4.1 The student assesses the cultural impact of Indo-Aryan movements on India
Example: Rise of Hinduism
D. 5.0 Students understand state building, trade and migrations that led to increasingly
complex interrelations among people in the Mediterranean basin and Southwest Asia.
D. 5.1 Students analyze the social and cultural effects of the spread of alphabetic
(phonetic) writing systems.
Examples: Write in cuneiform, hieroglyphics, Linear B, Phoenician, Greek and
Latin
D. 6.0 Students understand the major cultural achievements of Greek civilization.
D. 6.1 Students identify the major characteristics of Hellenic architecture and sculpture
and assess ways in which architecture and sculpture expressed or influenced social values
and attitudes.
Examples: Golden Ratio as symbol of the rise of reason. Sculpture as the rise of
humanism – man as the measure of all things. Connection of golden ratio to
human body measurements
D. 6.2 Students identify major Greek myths and assess how they reflected social values
and attitude.
Examples: D’Aulares and the message the myths deliver: hubris, nature of
tragedy, and the workings of the universe.
D. 6.3 Students explain the basic ideas of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, Herodotus and
other philosophers.
Examples: Quote project, death of Socrates, Plato’s quest for the Good in the
Realm of Forms, Aristotle’s role in birth of science, Herodotus as ‘father of
history’.
D. 7.0 Students understand Alexander the Great’s conquests and interregional character of
Hellenistic society and culture.
D. 7.1 Students understand that Alexander’s conquests spread Greek
features of architecture, governance, writing, drama and religion throughout his empire,
creating Hellenism.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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D. 8.0 Students understand the causes and consequences of the unification of the
Mediterranean basin under Roman rule.
D. 8.1 Students understand the major architectural achievements of the Romans and the
influences of Hellenistic culture on the Roman Europe.
Examples: Roman temples mimic Greek, Coliseum, concrete, arch
D. 9.0 Students understand how China became unified under the early imperial dynasties.
D. 9.1 Students analyze the cultural significance of the Silk Road in the period of the Han
and Roman empires.
D.10.0 Students understand major global trends from 1000 BCE to 300 BCE.
D. 10.1 Students define the concept of “classical civilizations” and assess the enduring
importance of ideas, institutions and art forms that emerged in the classical periods.
D. 10. 2 Students explain the significance of Greek or Hellenistic ideas
and cultural styles in the history of the Mediterranean basin and Europe.
D. 11.0 Students understand the religious and ethical systems that emerged from the Asian
continent during the first millennium BCE.
D. 11.1 Students explain the blend of Aryan and Harrapan tradition
that led to the rise of Hinduism.
D. 11.2 Students explain the life and teachings of the Buddha and the fundamental
practices of Buddhism.
D. 11.3 Students describe the life of Confucius and explain the fundamental teachings of
Confucianism.
D. 11.4 Students explain the fundamental teaching and practices of Judaism.
D. 11.5 Students explain the fundamental teaching and practices of Christianity
D. 11.6 Students explain the fundamental teaching and practices of Islam.
D. 11.7 Students understand how new religious and ethical systems contributed to
cultural integration of large regions of Afro-Eurasia.
Bozeman Public Schools Social Studies Standards, Grade 6
Updated January 21, 2010
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