What students should know:
Major discoveries in science and technology, some of their social and economic effects, and the major scientists and inventors associated with them.
To demonstrate understanding of the development of technological innovations, the major scientists and inventors associated with them, and their social and economic effects, students should be able to:
- Compare and contrast the behaviors of hunters and gatherers with those of people who cultivated plants and raised domesticated animals for food, in order to demonstrate the influence of the Neolithic revolution on the daily lives of people. (Compare and contrast differing sets of ideas.)
- Draw upon visual data to illustrate development of the wheel and its early uses in ancient societies. (Demonstrate and explain the influence of ideas.)
- Describe the development and the influence of basic tools on work and behavior. (Demonstrate and explain the influence of ideas.)
- Identify and describe various technological developments to control fire, water, wind, and soil, and to utilize natural resources such as trees, coal, oil, and gas in order to satisfy the basic human needs for food, water, clothing, and shelter. (Obtain needed historical data.)
- Identify and describe technological inventions and production developments that evolved during the 19th century and the influence of these changes on the lives of workers. (Demonstrate and explain the influence of ideas.)
- Identify and describe the significant achievements of important scientists and inventors. (Assess the importance of the individual in history.)
Students in grades K-2 will demonstrate achievement of this standard when they can:
- Draw upon visual data and field experiences at local museums in order to write a story or draw a picture that explains the changes in family life that occurred when the family no longer had to hunt for food, could be supported on smaller amounts of land, and could acquire surplus food for storage and trading.
- After reading simple biographies, create a portrait of a famous person with props that represent the important accomplishments of that person, such as George Washington Carver with a peanut, Galileo with a telescope, Marie Curie with a test tube, Louis Pasteur with a glass of milk, and Alexander Graham Bell with a telephone.
Students in grades 3-4 will demonstrate achievement of this standard when they can:
- Create a picture time line tracing the development of the wheel and simple tools in the ancient world, and subsequent developments of technological inventions, control of the elements, and work.
- Examine appropriate reference and fiction and nonfiction resources, such as How Things Work by David Macaulay and The Great Wall of China by Leonard Everett Fisher, in order to develop a list of basic tools and simple machines and answer such research questions as: What are some tools and devices that have been invented to make life easier? or How did the earliest developments in tools and machines influence social and economic life?
- Select and use appropriate reference materials, such as Cobblestone magazine, the book Black Inventors and Their Inventions by Jim Haskins, and historical narratives, in order to answer the research questions: In what ways did the Industrial Revolution affect the lives of crafts people in the 19th century? What are the individual character traits that were necessary to bring about the explosion of inventions that occurred during the Industrial Revolution?
SOURCE: National Council for History Standards.
