Agriculture

There's a scene we're probably all familiar with... at least if you're one of my students reading this.  Indiana, oh Indiana.  Thank you for your corn.

What did we learn today?  2 main things: agriculture is a big deal historically, and ancient civilizations are found near rivers.  The 7th grade social studies department lists it as the most important/influential discovery or invention of all time.  How do we quantify that?  Well, it's just a difficult algorithm - we went with the consensus majority of the department.  Sure, there are others out there who would disagree, but other academic sources agree with us as well: the lexile's a little higher, but feel free to check it out...  Granted, any time you a list like this is created it's up for discussion.  And we did discuss it for a while.

It was a lot of fun hearing the ideas the students came up with.  Some of their answers were right on with the majority of academia - the wheel, fire, the internet, language, books, guns, math, etc...  Granted, some were probably jokes... like the group that came up with hair straighteners.  Probably important.  I wouldn't know.

I also gave 4 reasons ancient civilizations were found near rivers: transportation, agriculture, drinking water, and silt.  I promise: that is going to be on every test from here on out.  Promise.

If you want the extra credit, read and discuss the blog with an adult.  Talk about why agriculture was so important.  What did it allow people to do?  Do you agree that it was the most important invention/discovery of all time?  When you're finished, write 2 sentences about the discussion.  Have the adult you discussed it with sign the paper.

Turn it in tomorrow.