Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Understanding the diversity and complexity of cultural expressions in one culture enhances our understanding of other cultures.
Interactions between belief systems, social organization, and languages influence artistic expressions of culture.
Geographic and environmental factors influenced the development of agriculture, trade, and increasingly complex cultures.
Value systems and belief systems shape the structures of power and authority within a culture.
Content
Learning Standards
Content
definitions of culture and how these have changed over time
- Sample topics:
- terminology such as “civilized” and “uncivilized”
- different perspectives when defining culture
elements of culture and cultural expressions
- Sample topics:
- language
- key forms of artistic expression
- use of symbols and imagery
- cultural archetypes
- materials and techniques used by different cultures
conflict and conflict resolution within and between cultures
- Sample topics:
- conquest of territory and the treatment of conquered people
- martial alliances and diplomacy
- conflicts over values or ideas
- conflicts over resources and wealth
systems of power, authority, and governance
- Sample topics:
- leadership roles within cultures
- informal and formal leadership
- institutions of authority
- process for making and enforcing laws
role of value systems and belief systems in the development of cultures
- Sample topics:
- religious doctrines
- values and morals
- philosophical beliefs
- myths, legends, and heroes
interactions and exchanges between cultures
- Sample topics:
- exchanges of ideas and cultural transmission
- spread of technologies
- spread of religion and philosophy
- land-based and sea-based trade between cultures
interactions between cultures and the natural environment
- Sample topics:
- climate and native plants and animals
- natural resources and economic development
- human adaptation to the physical environment:
- Polynesian wayfinders’ use of ocean currents
- Cree seasonal hunting practices
- fish farming in B.C.
- transportation issues in local urban development
- degrees of separation between the physical environment and cultural world:
- San people’s relationship to water
- Canadian First Peoples community water supplies
- protection of waterways in central/northern B.C.
- local urban life and bottled water usage
- interdependence of cultural identity and the physical environment:
- Yanomamo group identity and hunting practices in the Amazon
- Newfoundlanders, fishing, and identity
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Use Social Studies inquiry processes and skills to ask questions; gather, interpret, and analyze ideas; and communicate findings and decisions
- Key skills:
- Draw conclusions about a problem, an issue, or a topic.
- Assess and defend a variety of positions on a problem, an issue, or a topic.
- Demonstrate leadership by planning, implementing, and assessing strategies to address a problem or an issue.
- Identify and clarify a problem or issue.
- Evaluate and organize collected data (e.g., in outlines, summaries, notes, timelines, charts).
- Interpret information and data from a variety of maps, graphs, and tables.
- Interpret and present data in a variety of forms (e.g., oral, written, and graphic).
- Accurately cite sources.
- Construct graphs, tables, and maps to communicate ideas and information, demonstrating appropriate use of grids, scales, legends, and contours.
Assess and compare the significance of cultural expressions at particular times and places (significance)
- Key questions:
- What factors can cause people, places, events, or developments to become more or less significant?
- What factors can make people, places, events, or developments significant to different people?
- What criteria should be used to assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments?
- Sample activities:
- Use criteria to rank the most important people, places, events, or developments in the current unit of study.
- Compare how different groups assess the significance of people, places, events, or developments.
Evaluate inferences about the content, origins, purposes, context, reliability, and usefulness of multiple sources from the past and present (evidence)
- Key questions:
- What criteria should be used to assess the reliability of a source?
- How much evidence is sufficient in order to support a conclusion?
- How much about various people, places, events, or developments can be known and how much is unknowable?
- Sample activities:
- Compare and contrast multiple accounts of the same event and evaluate their usefulness as historical sources.
- Examine what sources are available and what sources are missing and evaluate how the available evidence shapes your perspective on the people, places, events, or developments studied.
Analyze continuities and changes in diverse cultures at different times and places (continuity and change)
- Key questions:
- What factors lead to changes or continuities affecting groups of people differently?
- How do gradual processes and more sudden rates of change affect people living through them? Which method of change has more of an effect on society?
- How are periods of change or continuity perceived by the people living through them? How does this compare to how they are perceived after the fact?
- Sample activity:
- Compare how different groups benefited or suffered as a result of a particular change.
Assess the development and impact of the thought, artistic expressions, power and authority, and technological adaptations of diverse cultures (cause and consequence)
Explain different perspectives on past and present cultures (perspective)
- Key questions:
- What sources of information can people today use to try to understand what people in different times and places believed?
- How much can we generalize about values and beliefs in a given society or time period?
- Is it fair to judge people of the past using modern values?
- Sample activity:
- Explain how the beliefs of people on different sides of the same issue influence their opinions.
Make reasoned ethical judgments about actions in the past and present, and assess appropriate ways to remember and respond (ethical judgment)
- Key questions:
- What is the difference between implicit and explicit values?
- Why should we consider the historical, political, and social context when making ethical judgments?
- Should people of today have any responsibilities for actions taken in the past?
- Can people of the past be celebrated for great achievements if they have also done things considered unethical today?
- Sample activities:
- Assess the responsibility of historical figures for an important event. Assess how much responsibility should be assigned to different people, and evaluate whether their actions were justified given the historical context.
- Examine various media sources on a topic and assess how much of the language contains implicit and explicit moral judgments.