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Expansion & Interconnection Daily Plans

Expansion & Interconnection Hooking Lesson Plan I

Title of lesson: Opening Activity - What Caused Expansion?

Your Name: Steven Schatzberg

Length of lesson: 15 Minutes

Context of Lesson:

This lesson is the first lesson for the unit Threshold 8: Expansion and Interconnection in Big History. Students will be tasked
with brainstorming reasons why civilizations expanded prior to exploring that question in greater detail in the following
lessons of the Unit.

Overview:

Students will be tasked with working in their table groups to brainstorm the causes of the expansion of civilizations through
a short hooking activity. Each table group will take on the role of the leadership of an Agrarian Civilization that is running
low on resources and must come up with a plan of action. Student groups will decide whether they should tax their people,
invade and conquer their neighbors, or develop innovations to generate resources. They will also address questions that
consider their plan, its benefits, costs, and dangers associated with their chosen course of action. A brief discussion will
follow to assess the types of considerations the students identified in their plan of action.

Central problem/ Essential question:

1. What caused the expansion of civilizations?

Objectives:

Students will know/be able to:

 Students will be able to explain what caused civilizations to expand.
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Anticipated student conceptions or challenges to understanding:

 Students may lack specific knowledge about the ways that civilizations expanded. This challenge will be mitigated by
giving them three specific expansion options to choose for their plan of action.
 Students may also have trouble analyzing their chosen plan of action. This challenge will be mitigated by providing
specific questions to guide them in their analysis of their plan of action.

Materials/Evidence/Sources:
 PowerPoint Presentation
 What Caused Expansion Worksheet

Instructional Sequence:

1. Teacher will launch the lesson by asking the students to consider how and why early civilizations and their
successors expanded. The students will be asked to work as a table group to engage in a brainstorming exercise where
they will act as leaders of an agrarian civilization that is running low on resources. The groups will be asked to choose
a plan of action (tax your people, invade your neighbors, or develop innovations to generate resources) and consider
the benefits, costs, and dangers of their chosen method. The groups will be provided a worksheet to complete during
the brainstorming exercise where they will choose a plan of action and answer the guiding questions.
2. Table groups should take no more than 10 minutes to brainstorm the details of their plan and record them on the
worksheet. After students complete this portion of the activity, the Teacher will lead a brief discussion to identify the
chosen methods of each group as well as the benefits, costs, and dangers they discussed in their groups. The hooking
activity will lead directly into the following lesson.

Assessment:
 A brief discussion will follow the activity where students will discuss their plans of action, the benefits of their chosen
plan, and the costs and dangers. Teacher will lead this discussion by using the questions provided in the worksheet to
prompt the students. Teacher will facilitate the discussion by asking for further explanation through clarifying
questions as necessary.
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Expansion & Interconnection Lesson Plan I

Title of lesson: What Caused Expansion?

Your Name: Steven Schatzberg

Length of lesson: 45 minutes

Context of Lesson:

This lesson follows the Hooking Opening Activity and is the first lesson of the Unit Threshold 8: Expansion &
Interconnection. Students will be introduced to three agrarian civilizations that expanded in order to acquire resources to
sustain themselves. The lesson Crash Course: The Modern Revolution will follow this lesson.

Overview:

This lesson will give an overview of the Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires which were agrarian civilizations that
expanded through conquest to sustain their resources and innovation. This lesson will also show how innovations developed
for military purposes by agrarian civilizations also had commercial and civil benefits.

Central problem/ Essential question:

 Why did civilizations expand geographically?
 Why did many leaders of agrarian civilizations choose conquest to pay their expenses rather than trying to raise
money in lands they already controlled?
 What are some examples of ways that military innovations supported trade and other important human activities?
 What innovations resulted from the expansion of the Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires?
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Objectives:

Students will know/be able to:

 Students will be able to explain why civilizations expanded geographically.
 Students will be able to identify how military innovations of agrarian civilizations were adapted for civil or
commercial activities.

Anticipated student conceptions or challenges to understanding:

 Students may be unfamiliar with innovations made by the Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires that aided in or
resulted from their expansion. To assist students in developing their understanding, students will create a table and
make predictions about each empire’s innovations prior to exposure to the content. The students will create a similar
table in their ISN after the content that will ask them to identify specific innovations for each empire.

Materials/Evidence/Sources:
 PowerPoint Presentation
 ISN (Interactive Student Notebook)
 Why Did Civilization Expand? video from https://school.bighistoryproject.com

Instructional Sequence:

1. The teacher will begin the lesson by explaining that the challenge to sustain resources led to the expansion of
agrarian civilizations through military conquest. The Teacher will introduce the students to three of these civilizations
(Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires) to act as case studies for the lesson. The students will create a table on the left
side of their notebooks and make predictions about how each civilization used innovation to expand geographically.
Once the students have completed this task, the Teacher may ask for students to share these predictions.
2. The Teacher will continue the lesson and discuss the Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires’ innovations and
expansions. Students will be exposed to specific innovations that each civilization used to expand and how those
innovations also had commercial or civil benefits for their societies. As a formative assessment, the students will
create another table in their ISN and identify specific innovations that each civilization used in their expansion. The
Teacher may call on students to share when they have completed this task.
3. Next the students will watch a video from the Big history Project website that addresses the question of the lesson:
Why did Civilizations Expand? After completing the video, the students will answer three central questions from the
video on the Right Side of their ISN. The Teacher will ask students to share their answers and reveal the answers in
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response. The Teacher will close the lesson by recapping that agrarian civilizations expanded to maintain access to
necessary resources and used innovations to aid in their expansion.

Assessment:
 Students will complete a Formative Assessment that requires them to create a table and identify specific innovations
that the aided the Persian, Roman, and Mongol empires’ expansion.
 Students will address questions based on the video to include; what caused civilizations to expand, why did agrarian
civilizations choose to conquer their neighbors, and how did military innovations support trade and other activities?