Big Ideas
- PATTERNS
- CIVILIZATION
- CHANGE
Essential Purpose
The complexities of today’s world are in part a consequence of changes that have been in the making for centuries, even millennia. Important historical continuities can be discerned that link one period with another. And even though history may not repeat itself in any precise way, certain historical patterns do recur. Studying one development in world history in the light of an earlier, similar development can sharpen our understanding of both.
The avian bird flu is one of the latest viruses that has caused
wide spread concerns over a possible pandemic.
source - http://http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/03/20/azerflu.shtml
Goal Statements
- Students will organize events through chronologies to suggest and evaluate cause-and-effect relationships among those events.
- Students will study the ways in which individuals and societies have changed and interacted over time.
In the 9-12 cluster, students continue deeper into the understanding of the results and consequences of chronologies by analyzing how some things change in history, and how some don’t. They also are ready to apply it to daily adult life as a citizen by analyzing contemporary issues.
Students who fully master this standard are ready to apply it in daily adult life as a citizen by analyzing contemporary issues; by researching or hypothesizing how that particular situation came to exist or how that particular policy came to be; and, demonstrating the ability to determine consequences.
Students need to learn how to organize what looks like a mess of historical records and information. The limitations of chronology come from its seamlessness. When is it possible to link events in a cause and effect relationship? Where do we begin to claim that an event caused or affected a later situation – ten years ago, a hundred years ago, five hundred years ago? And what do we put into our chronology and what do we leave out? Both questions are part of the judgments a historian makes while researching a topic, judgments that by definition are imperfect.
Delaware State Standards measured in the Transfer Task
Social Studies
History Standard One 9-12a: Students will analyze historical materials to trace the development of an idea or trend across space or over a prolonged period of time in order to explain patterns of historical continuity and change
Enduring Understandings
Students will understand that…
- History is often messy, yet a historian must logically organize events, recognize patterns and trends, explain cause and effect, make inferences, and draw conclusions from those sources which are available at the time.
- The questions a historian chooses to guide historical research that creates accurate chronologies will affect which events will go into the chronology and which will be left out.
Essential Questions
- Were contemporary issues also problematic for past societies? Why are those issues difficult? Is there a pattern of continuity or change?
- To what extent can we learn from studying historical responses to societal problems?
Unit Questions
- What can be learned from studying the effects of a pandemic in one time and place?
- To what extent can a pandemic disease affect a society?
- To what extent are pandemics inevitable?
Targeted Knowledge and Skills
Students will know…- Effects of the Black Death on European economy and society
- Cultural responses to disease in medieval times
- Effects of a pandemic on a society
- Contemporary issues relating to the AIDS pandemic
- Frame, analyze and solve problems
- Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others
- Locate appropriate resources
- Act responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind
21st Century Skills
- Frame, analyze and solve problems
- Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others
- Locate appropriate resources
- Act responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind
Transfer Task
This summative assessment is a transfer task that requires students to use knowledge and understandings to perform a task in a new setting or context.
The assessment and scoring guide should be reviewed with students prior to using the lessons in the module. Students should do the assessment after the lessons have been completed.
Essential Questions Addressed by the Transfer Task
- Were contemporary issues also problematic for past societies? Why are those issues difficult? Is there a pattern of continuity or change?
- To what extent can we learn from studying historical responses to societal problems?
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Prior Knowledge
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Now that you have learned about how different populations have been changed by a devastating pandemic and how societies explained its causes, you are ready to apply that knowledge. |
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Problem
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Fears of avian influenza spreading rapidly around the world have led members of the United Nations Security Council to convene a special session to study its potential effects. |
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Role/Perspective
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You are a member of the United States Center for Disease Control. You will address the United Nations Security Council on the threat of avian influenza to human populations. |
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Product/ Performance
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Prepare a multi-media presentation that includes historical patterns of responses to pandemics; comparisons to past efforts to halt the spread of a disease; relevant graphs, charts, and other appropriate data; predictions concerning the potential effects of the pandemic; and suggests a plan for how the pandemic problem might best be solved.
Your presentation should reflect the most current research involving any cooperative efforts, national or international, already underway to address the problem of avian influenza. |
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Criteria for an Exemplary Response
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Be sure to include in your report:
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