Third Grade Overview



Graphic Organizer

Big Idea Card

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|Big Ideas of the Lesson 4, Unit 4 |

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|From earliest times cultures have found ways to adapt to their natural environments. |

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|Adaptation has allowed humans to survive in almost any environment on Earth. |

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|Adaptations can be seen in housing, clothing, and food as well as other cultural components. |

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|Nomadic herders in Mongolia have found many ways to adapt to the challenging geography of the country. |

Word Cards

|13 |14 |

|cultural adaptation |cultural |

| |ecology |

|patterns of behavior that enable a culture to cope with its surroundings or | |

|when an individual modifies his/her customs to fit in to a particular culture |the study of a culture’s interactions with its physical environment |

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|Example: Cultural adaptation is reflected in the types of housing people use |Example: The geographic theme of human/environment interaction focuses on |

|because of their surroundings or when individuals change their clothing to fit|cultural ecology. |

|in with a different culture. | |

| |(SS060403) |

|(SS060403) | |

|15 |16 |

|steppe |arable land |

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|a dry, grass-covered plain |land suited to agriculture |

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|Example: The steppe of Mongolia offers people both challenges and | |

|opportunities. | |

| |Example: There is very little arable land in Mongolia. |

|(SS060403) | |

| |(SS060403) |

|17 |18 |

|continental climate |nomadic |

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|a climate with hot summers and cold winters, found only in the Northern |people who move from one place to another rather than settling permanently in |

|Hemisphere |one location |

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|Example: Both Michigan and Mongolia have a continental climate. |Example: About half of the people in Mongolia are nomadic. |

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|(SS060403) |(SS060403) |

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Culture: the Engine of Human Adaptation

In 1845, Sir John Franklin, a Fellow of the Royal Society and experienced Arctic traveler, set out with a large, well-equipped expedition to find the Northwest Passage. His ship was ice-bound through two winters, and the entire crew of 129 perished, mainly from starvation and scurvy. Yet the rich animal resources of the region where these men died have allowed the Central Inuit to survive and raise their children for at least 700 years. Why couldn’t the British find enough food?

Modern technology allows us to dominate the world like no other species in the history of life. In the Pleistocene, our hunter-gatherer ancestors did the same—long before farming, cities, or the industrial revolution. Modern humans emerged from Africa about 50,000 years ago and soon occupied almost every terrestrial habitat, from extreme desert to tropical rain forest to arctic tundra. Of course there are species adapted to each of these environments: desert rodents conserve water so well that they never need to drink; forest primates swing through the canopy never coming to ground, and arctic musk ox have hair and fat deposits that allow them to survive winter above the Arctic Circle. What makes humans unique in the natural world is that they live in all of these environments.

Humans can rapidly adapt to a much wider range of circumstances than any other creature. Two million years ago, our ancestors were a fairly typical ape species limited to a small part of Africa. Now we are the world’s champion adapters. What explains this change?

You’re probably thinking, that’s easy—humans evolved big brains and got a lot smarter. We can adapt to such a wide range of environments because we use these smarts to solve the problems of each one. We invent tools, clothing, and shelter. Other animals can’t do this because they aren’t as clever as we are. People are indeed smarter than the average bear (or primate), but we are not nearly smart enough individually to solve the number of problems that we need to solve.

Instead I believe that culture is the key. Humans are much better at learning from each other than any other animal. This ability allows human populations to gradually accumulate knowledge over generations that no individual human could invent alone. Such cultural adaptation may be slow when measured in human lifetimes, but it is blindingly fast compared to genetic adaptation. The British explorers starved not because they lacked intelligence but because they did not have the necessary local knowledge and two years was not enough time to acquire it.

The people who left the Horn of Africa 50,000 years ago were tropical foragers. Twenty thousand years later, their descendants were living on the shores of the Arctic Ocean. To get a feeling for how much knowledge was required to make this transition, let’s take a look at a people who lived in a similar environment, Central Inuit of the Canadian Arctic.

These foragers depended utterly on a toolkit crammed with complex, highly refined tools. Winter temperatures average about −25° C, so survival required warm clothes. In the winter, the Central Inuit wore beautifully designed clothing. Making clothing from caribou skins requires a host of complex skills⎯hides must be cured, thread and needles made and clothing designed, cut, and stitched. Even the best clothing is not enough during winter storms; shelter is mandatory. The Central Inuit made snow houses so well designed that interior temperatures were about 10° C. No wood was available, so they lit and heated houses, cooked food, and melted ice for water using carved soapstone lamps fueled with rendered seal fat.

During the winter, the Central Inuit hunted seals, mainly by ambushing them at their breathing holes using multi-piece toggle harpoons. During the summer, the Inuit used a clever three-pronged spear with a sharp central spike and two hinged, backward-facing points, to harvest Arctic char caught in stone weirs. They also hunted seals and walrus in open water from kayaks. Later in summer and the fall, they shifted to caribou hunting, using sophisticated recurved, composite bows.

Inventing a kayak or acquiring an Inuit’s knowledge of seal behavior are hard problems, beyond the capacity of any individual. Inventing the whole package is impossible. Culture allows populations to acquire adaptations beyond the ken of individuals. It is what has allowed the Inuit to survive in sub-zero temperatures and other humans to survive in blistering heat.

Adapted from: Culture: the Engine of Human Adaptation. 4 January 2013 .

Identifying Main Idea Strategy Sheet

Skill: Identifying the Main idea

Strategy: Three Brains are Better than One

The Problem:

Sometimes there are so many details in a piece of social studies text it’s hard to figure out the main idea. How do you find main ideas when they seem to be hidden in a lot of supporting information?

The Strategy

One strategy for identifying what a passage is really about is to read the text with other people and work together to determine the main ideas. This strategy requires you to think deeply about the text, to say what you think about it, and to listen to other’s ideas.

The Process

1. Read the text selection out loud with two other people.

2. Have each person make a very brief comment about the entire passage.

3. After everyone has had a turn to comment, each group member should work independently to do the following two things:

a. Underline one or two sentences in the passage that he/she felt were most significant.

b. Explain why he/she chose this part of the passage in the space provided below.

4. When everyone is finished with the individual task, each person should take a turn explaining what they underlined and why.

5. Finally, group members should synthesize everyone’s ideas and come up with the main idea of the passage and write it in the space provided below.

|I chose these sentences because…. |

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|We’ve decided that the main idea of this text is….. |

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The Geography of Mongolia

Mongolia is about twice the size of Texas, or just a little larger than Alaska. The country is mountainous with an average altitude of 1,580 meters above sea level. The principal mountains are concentrated in the west, with much of this region having elevations above 2,000 meters and the country's highest peaks permanently snow-capped land covered with glaciers.

Mongolia is dry, as nearly 90% of the land is steppe, either pasture or desert. It includes part of the Gobi Desert which extends from China into southern Mongolia. This desert is mostly rock or gravel with only 5% sandy dunes. Only 1% of Mongolia’s land is arable, or suited for agriculture. There are limited natural fresh water resources in some areas.

Mongolia has a continental climate with severe variations in temperature between the seasons. Winter averages -40 degrees Fahrenheit while summer gets to 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Powerful winds are common in the country.

Natural hazards include dust storms, grassland and forest fires, drought, and ‘zud’, which refers to harsh winter conditions.

[pic]

Source: Topographical Map of Mongolia. 14 January 2013 .

Nomadic Herders of Mongolia

Mongolian pastoral herders make up one of the world’s last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the lush grasslands. Nomadic life is the way of life for about half of Mongolia’s population. There the country is one of the last in the world today with such a high proportion of nomadic citizens.

Because of the climate, lack of arable land and a short growing season, animal husbandry defines the nomadic culture. People raise five types of animals: goats, sheep, cattle (including yaks), camels, and horses. These provide meat, dairy products, transportation, and wool. Families follow a seasonal routine, moving the herds to new grazing land based on the time of year.

As one of the only remaining horse-based cultures left in the world, Mongolians cherish their horses. Outside the capital, the horse is still the main mode of transportation and children begin riding as soon as they can sit up.

Directions: Think about the cultural clues you have investigated. Describe how each of the following is a cultural adaptation to the geography of Mongolia.

|Cultural Clue |How is this an example of cultural adaptation to the geography of Mongolia? |

|The shape of the Ger | |

|The portability of the Ger | |

|Food focusing on meat and dairy | |

|products | |

|A taboo against harming the | |

|environment | |

|Folktales that often feature | |

|animals like horses and camels | |

|The common practice of wearing | |

|hats | |

Nomadic Herders of Mongolia – Sample Answers

Mongolian pastoral herders make up one of the world’s last remaining nomadic cultures. For millennia they have lived on the steppes, grazing their livestock on the lush grasslands. Nomadic life is the way of life for about half of Mongolia’s population. There the country is one of the last in the world today with such a high proportion of nomadic citizens.

Because of the climate, lack of arable land and a short growing season, animal husbandry defines the nomadic culture. People raise five types of animals: goats, sheep, cattle (including yaks), camels, and horses. These provide meat, dairy products, transportation, and wool. Families follow a seasonal routine, moving the herds to new grazing land based on the time of year.

As one of the only remaining horse-based cultures left in the world, Mongolians cherish their horses. Outside the capital, the horse is still the main mode of transportation and children begin riding as soon as they can sit up.

Directions: Think about the cultural clues you have investigated. Describe how each of the following is a cultural adaptation to the geography of Mongolia.

|Cultural Clue |How is each an example of cultural adaptation to the geography of Mongolia? |

|The shape and style of the Ger |The roundness makes it wind resistant. The materials make it cool in summer and warm in winter. |

|The portability of the Ger |Because of the geography people have to move with their herds, so it is important to have a house that is easy to |

| |take down and put up. |

|Food focusing on meat and dairy |Because of the lack of fertile farm land people are dependent on their animals for food. |

|products | |

|A taboo against harming the |Nomadic herders are very dependent on their environment for survival. |

|environment | |

|Folktales that often feature |The geography makes the raising of animals the best choice for a family so animals are very important. |

|animals like horses and camels | |

|The common practice of wearing |The area is often windy and cold. |

|hats | |

Research Project

Environment researched: ______________________________________________________________

Group Members:_____________________________________________________________________

|Challenge |Example of Adaptation |

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Cultural

Adaptation

Which environments have posed the most challenges to people?

How have people adapted to the varied environments of Earth?

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