Seventh Grade Historical Thinking and Early Man Unit
Lesson 2
Title: Historical Artifacts – How and Why?
Grade Level: Seventh
Unit of Study: Historical Thinking and Early Man
GLCE:
· 7 – H1.2.1: Explain how historians use a variety of sources to explore the past (e.g., artifacts, primary and secondary sources including narratives, technology, historical maps, visual/mathematical quantitative data, radiocarbon dating, DNA analysis).
· 7 – H1.2.5: Describe how historians use methods of inquiry to identify cause effect relationships in history noting that many have multiple causes.
· 7 – H1.4.2: Describe and use themes of history to study patterns of change and continuity.
Abstract: The learner will explore primary and secondary sources pertaining to early human drawings in the cave of Lascaux in order form hypothesis about why these drawings were made.
Key Concepts: inquiry, primary source, secondary source
Sequence of Activities:
1. To begin, provide students with the following scenario:
“You and your friend are having troubles with gossip. Yesterday you received a note directly from your friend that described how she is mad at you because you spent more time with another group of friends that morning than her. Instead of responding directly to your friend, you decided to talk about your problem with another group of friends. You managed to avoid the note-writing friend, but by the end of the day she approaches you furious. She says that she heard from someone else that you said that you were not going to be friends with her anymore because she dresses weird. You never said this, but she doesn’t believe you because she is sure that she heard that you did say it.”
2. As a group, discuss how the communication caused a problem between the friends. On one hand, one friend communicated directly with the other (using a note), while the other responded using other friends. Discuss with students how the note is an example of a primary resource (a document or information coming directly from the source), while the other girl communicated is a secondary source manner (the story was passed between friends and not directly from the source). Discuss as a group the implications of using primary and secondary sources. Establish the fact the primary sources are more accurate, but may not occur as often.
3. For the bulk of this lesson, students will be studying primary and secondary resources that deal with paintings in the caves of Lascaux.
4. Begin this portion by visiting the cave of Lascaux on Google Earth in order to familiarize the students with this area of France (Not familiar with Google Earth, check out the User’s Guide for help).
5. Next, break students up into seven groups and have them visit the cave of Lascaux website. (Click “Discover” and then “Virtual Visit” to access the seven parts of the cave)
6. While at the site, students should visit one area of the cave (there are seven areas noted on the site) and record what they see only (emphasize that they are the historians here, because they are using primary sources, the pictures directly from the cave, to collect information about early humans).
7. Have students share with each other what the primary resources show.
8. Next, students will focus on one cause/effect issue that has arisen with the caves. Explain to students that the caves were open to the public in 1945, but closed off in 1963. Have students hypothesize WHY the caves are closed.
9. Student should visit the Closing of the Cave portion of the Lascaux website in order to learn why the cave was closed. (Click “Discover” and then “Closing of the Cave” to access the Closing of the Cave pages.
10. Finally, have students respond to the following prompt:
Historians use a variety of sources to solve complex problems. Explain how primary and secondary sources were used in researching the paintings in the cave of Lascaux. Next, explain the cause behind the closing of the cave to the general public in 1963.
Connections:
English Language Arts
Mathematics
Instructional Resources:
Equipment/Manipulative
Chalkboard / Whiteboard
Computer lab or Internet access
Student Resources
Cave Website
Teacher Resources
Google Earth User’s Guide
Calhoun ISD Social Studies Curriculum Design Project