This elementary exploration of interdependence from the American Forum for Global Education touches on language arts, social studies, and science. Students understand the connection between themselves and their natural environment.

Students explore the values, daily routines, structures, and rituals of ancient Egypt and compare them to those of society today, while exploring the evidence an author uses to support points in a text.

A comprehensive site on Ancient Egypt, including sections on the lifestyle, geography, religion, and politics of the country.

A beautifully illustrated museum site for younger students that presents ancient Egyptian life, geography, mummification, pharaohs, pyramids, and the like.

This beautifully crafted site on Mesopotamia has selected information on Assyrian palaces and warfare, Babylonian astronomers, trade and transport and Sumer, Royal Tombs of Ur and Ziggurats.

Contains a great deal of historical information about ancient Greece that supports the PBS program "The Greeks- Crucible of Civilization." Includes a timeline, a virtual tour of the acropolis, lesson plans to accompany the show, and more.

Discover Rome during the first century in this brilliant and detailled website Included is a timeline and description of the emperors, an explanation of social roles, and a wonderful description of life in Roman times including family, marriage, home, Roman baths, entertainment and religion.

Who decides who among us is civilized? What rules should govern immigration into the United States? Whom should we let in? Keep out? What should we do about political refugees or children without papers? What if they would be a drain on our economy?

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and write a short argument about who in the play is truly civilized.
Students participate in a mock trial in which they argue for or against granting asylum to a teenage refugee, and then they write arguments in favor of granting asylum to one refugee and against granting it to another.
Students read an Independent Reading text and write an informational essay about a global issue and how that relates to their book.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What role do national identity, custom, religion, and other locally held beliefs play in a world increasingly characterized by globalization?
How does Shakespeare’s view of human rights compare with that in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
Who is civilized? Who decides what civilization is or how it’s defined?
How do we behave toward and acknowledge those whose culture is different from our own?

Twenty slideshows of the ancient Indus civilization demonstrate the archeological discoveries at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.

Website presents material for kids and teachers on the history, geography, and culture of the Inca Civilization.

Cracking the Maya Code traces the work of scholars, over 200 years, as they attempt to decipher the Maya hieroglyphics. [54:00]

This is the introduction to a tutorial site for social organization that covers the basic components of the social organization and an explanation of why such organization is necessary and inevitable. The site features flashcards, quizzes, and the like.

A comprehensive article accounting the definition and defining characteristics of a civilization to better understand the early civilizations.