A key step in any successful civilization is the move from hunting and gathering towards farming. Civilizations depend on agriculture!
As usual, we begin by teaching. Students will need to learn how real civilizations became agricultural societies. As we learn about Egypt, Mesopotamia, Rome, etc, I’d call out the pattern that a piece of technology tends to unlock farming. We’ll look for this each time we investigate a civilization.
Want to do an analyze step? (You know I love analyze!) Have your students categorize civilizations based on the type of technology that enables farming. As usual, they pick the criteria for and number of categories.
Once we’ve seen this pattern, students will Synthesize. They’ll model their civilization’s move away from hunting and gathering on an existing group of people. But, of course, they can change it as much as they’d like. I’d also want my students to explain the key crop that leads to an agricultural society.
Then, we get to the effects of this big change. What new jobs are unlocked by the surplus of food? Do we now have people who focus on metal working? Are there professional politicians now? Full time artists and musicians? Does the civilization’s religion grow more complex with dedicated clergy?
See my [full version of this lesson]() at Byrdseed.TV.