STUDENT EXAMPLES There were many other great student examples too! World History EQ Journaling Guidelines Use Office 365 to journal your responses to the essential questions at the end of each unit. You will have lab time to do this, but you can journal at home too using Office 365. Use the template I shared on Office 365 with you to journal. Rename the file World History EQ Journal LAST NAME Each time you journal, please do the following: 1. Include a response to all the EQs with regard to the unit we just finished. For example, if we just finished Egypt, answer each EQ using your knowledge of Egypt. 2. Give evidence and examples to support your responses. 3. Each response should be a minimum of 4 sentences per EQ. MOST GOOD response will probably be longer! 4. Relate what you have learned to previous units and EQs as well. 5. Use complete sentences. Spell and grammar check. Use your best English skills. 6. SHARE your journal with me via Office 365 when you are done. Insightful and well written journal responses can help boost your grade at the end of the nineweeks. Show me what you learned!
STUDENT EXAMPLES Lizzie pd. #7 Contributions: How does learning about ancient history impact how you understand the world and our connections to other people, cultures, and countries? Learning about ancient history impacts my understanding of the world, culture, people, and the connections I have with them. For example, by learning about ancient Mesopotamian history, I learned about the Epic of Gilgamesh. In the Epic, I can connect the flood story in it to the story of Noah's Ark. Learning about the religion of ancient Mesopotamia helps me make connections to the creation story. The creation story also helps me connect to the world in a geographical way because the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers played an important role in that story. Culture: How does the development of culture impact history, and why does it evolve and change over time? The development of Mesopotamian culture impacted history and changed over time in many ways. For example, art, writing, law, etc., made up the culture of ancient Mesopotamia. These elements of culture impacted history because it gave a start to present day art, laws, writing, agriculture, etc., preserved Mesopotamian history, and helps us understand their culture. Culture has evolved over time because, for example, geography has changed. Agriculture in Iraq is different now because humans changed the geography, by building canals, so they're less dependent on natural flooding. Writing has evolved into/because of alphabets, languages, and everyone is expected to be able to read and write. Therefore, culture impacted history and evolved over time. Geography: How does geography influence how people live, move, and define regions? Geography influenced the way people lived, moved and defined regions. For example, geography influenced the daily lives of people. Since ancient Mesopotamians had strong belief in gods, the geography surround Mesopotamia really influenced the myth of the flood story/ creation story. This made the people worship their gods even more so, since this proved to them that the gods could flood the earth, so geography influenced the lives of ancient Mesopotamians. In addition, geography influenced the movement of ancient Mesopotamians. By Mesopotamia's time in history, people were skilled at making boats, and Mesopotamia was outlined by the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, which both could lead you to the Persian Gulf. These landforms could lead anyone anywhere in ancient Mesopotamia. This is how people moved. Therefore, geography was a large influence on the way people lived, moved, and defined regions.
Religion: What is the function of religion in ancient civilizations, and how does it still impact today s world? The religion of ancient Mesopotamia, polytheism, had an important function and impacts the world today. The function of religion in Mesopotamia was to explain nature without science. Mesopotamian beliefs were that there was a god that controlled every aspect of life. Mesopotamians didn't have the knowledge/ science we have today, so they made up stories. If there was a flood, maybe the water gods were angry. This impacts todays world because we make up stories if we're scared. An example of this is a storm. To help calm us, if there's thunder, it means the angels are bowling, and lightning means there's a strike. In conclusion, the function of religion in ancient Mesopotamia was to explain nature without science, and this type of storytelling impacts the world today. History: How do we use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding? We use reliable sources to draw inferences to create understanding. For example, in class we used a Sumerian prayer as our source. From this we drew inferences to understand the relationship of Sumerians/ gods. One inference I drew was that the Sumerians needed to praise all of the gods because they didn't know all of the bad things they did and didn't want to be punished. I can understand from this that the Sumerians were fearful of their gods and high respect for them. Also, in the prayer, I can infer/ understand that they wanted to please their gods and gain trust with them because the prayer repeatedly stated something similar to "my god be pacified." Government: How does power define ancient and modern day governments, and why/how has the structure of power evolved over time? Power defines modern and ancient governments and the governing ways have changed over time. First off, power defines governments in modern and ancient times. In modern times, by who has power and how much power shows their government. For example, in The United States of America, we have a president, a house of representatives, secretaries, governors, etc., and each of them have different amounts of power. This shows we have a democratic government. In ancient governments, there was usually a military leader for their king, (Mesopotamia's military was very strong, so they wanted a strong leader for their empire), and military leaders had lots of power, so they got to rule the empire. Secondly, the structure has evolved over time. One way it changed/ evolved was by the law and leader selection. In many countries now, the citizens there have a lot of power in what laws go and what leaders they want. In Mesopotamia, a king or priest decided who was next in line and whatever they said, for laws or whatever, went. This has changed probably to allow the citizens a say in what they think is best for their country and to not have any strong rulers making unwise or fraudulent decisions.
Derek pd. #8 Contributions: How does learning about ancient history impact how you understand the world and our connections to other people, cultures, and countries? Learning about the ancient history of Mesopotamia, impacts how I understand the world and my connections to other people. For example, I learned that Noah's Ark and superheroes came from early Mesopotamia in Gilgamesh's story. I now understand that stories can evolve over generations, and sometimes the whole concept can change. I also learned that most of the items that are seen in modern times were invented in this time period, such as plows, wheels, weapons, writing, and laws. Many of these have changed into new things. For instance, weapons are no longer swords, they are guns. I now know that humans have built upon old ideas and improved them. This concept of ideas being created by ancient civilizations and remade into something new made me realize that most of our items that we see today have been changed and modified over hundreds of years. Culture: How does the development of culture impact history, and why does it evolve and change over time? The development of culture has impacted history by allowing humans to have their own little things that make them different. For example, different ethnic groups do different things in their daily life. Culture has evolved over time, because when new things are invented that everyone likes, their culture may change. Like when plows were created most people wanted them, so that their fields would be easier to take care of. This shows that culture evolves with new technology. Geography: How does geography influence how people live, move, and define regions? Geography in Mesopotamia influenced the way people lived, moved, and defined regions by affecting the way Mesopotamians created myths. One example is the creation myth, because the son of the Earth and air gods gathered water and squeezed it onto the Earth to create the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This allowed them to define regions by giving the Mesopotamians an understanding of nature. This also influenced the way they lived because they would worship these gods, because they created the Earth. And finally, movement was effected by geography because the Zagros Mountains blocked fast travel to the opposite side of the mountains. Geography played a big role in the daily lives of Mesopotamians. Religion: What is the function of religion in ancient civilizations, and how does it still impact today s world? The function of religion in Mesopotamia was to have an understanding about the world around them. Most of the gods have to deal with nature so that the Mesopotamians can comprehend why things happen in the Earth. Also, the early people of the Middle East relied on nature to complete tasks such as farming. They prayed to the gods to try to have a plentiful harvest, and to stop disasters. It still impacts us today because we still pray to God when someone is sick, so
that they will heal quickly. Also, many of us pray to win the lottery which isn't as important but we still do it. History: How do we use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding? We use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding when we read something that is confusing to us such as the Sumerian prayer. Inferences and connections that could be made from the prayer were the gods were omniscient but the people knew nothing, and that they loved their gods but the gods didn't show emotions back. When making inferences and connections from reliable sources we may learn more about the topic, or be able to comprehend what we are learning about. This is useful when learning about Mesopotamia because we need to learn about our past, and the only way to is to understand our past. Government: How does power define ancient and modern day governments, and why/how has the structure of power evolved over time? Power defines ancient and modern day governments because the more power the government has the more successful it is. This is true because if the government has no power, no one will listen to them when they make laws. The structure of power has evolved over time because when Mesopotamia began one person had all the power, the king, but as time went on people made sure no one had too much power. For example, when Mesopotamia developed further, there were multiple rulers in one area, the king and the individual rulers of the smaller city-states. Elyse pd. #6 Contributions: How does learning about ancient history impact how you understand the world and our connections to other people, cultures, and countries? Learning about the ancient history of Mesopotamia impacts how I understand the world and my connections to other people. For example, I learned that the origin of writing is in ancient Mesopotamia. Gilgamesh, a hero in ancient Mesopotamia, was searching for immortality. Think about Noah, and the ark. They will live forever because they were written down. Gilgamesh is still remembered today because he found immortality in writing. This impacts how I understand the world because overtime people and heroes in our life have been written down and we still remember them today. It shows how we live forever in this world it shows me how we have evolved from pictures to words on how we talk and express ourselves I the present day. Culture: How does the development of culture impact history, and why does it evolve and change over time? The development of culture impacts our history and evolves and changes over time by our religions and writing/recording methods. The theory that our religions have evolved over time would have been from writing. We wrote down the story The Epic of Gilgamesh which is later
believed to have evolved into the story of Noah's Ark. So, because of this step in our writing the historic story of Gilgamesh has impacted our culture. Geography: How does geography influence how people live, move, and define regions? Geography influenced how people lived because of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The rivers would naturally flood, which watered crops and other plantations that needed water. The rivers also influenced as a source of movement or transportation. When the Mesopotamians learned how to build ships and sail, they were able to sail across the rivers to trade and move around the land. Also, the rivers worked as a water source for humans and other living things to get water for cooking and other necessities. Religion: What is the function of religion in ancient civilizations, and how does it still impact today s world? The function of religion was used to explain the things humans didn t know how to explain, for example, nature. They didn t have science, so they made up gods to explain the world. Also, the people worshiped the gods so no harm would come to them. They did this because they believed that all the bad things that happened in the world were caused by gods, angry at the people living in their earth and the only way to keep them happy was to worship them. As well as keeping the gods happy, worship brought communities closer, which made them a stronger city overall. History: How do we use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding? We can use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build an understanding by reading and/or using primary sources. For example, we read a prayer that talked about the ancient gods of Mesopotamia, and we can infer through what we learned that the people feared their gods and gave them respect, hoping to please them. We can connect this to what we read because the prayer talks about the unknown and known gods and goddesses, and how the man (or woman) wishes to please them. Also, we can connect to the text because we can infer that they didn't know a lot about their gods, because they prayed to the gods they didn t know of and they asked for forgiveness for things they don't know that they did. Through the reliable source of the prayer, we could connect information and infer what we knew to what we read. Government: How does power define ancient and modern day governments, and why/how has the structure of power evolved over time? Power defines ancient and modern day governments by what it is used for and who uses it. In ancient times power was defined by those who had higher ranks and they used it to make rules and used those rules to stay in power. Now, power has evolved over time and been given to the people. People nowadays chose their leaders through voting, giving them the full say in who leads them. But in other places, government is still like the government in Mesopotamia. People who have the support of the people for short times take that advantage and use it to stay in power, and even when the people no longer support them.
Jillian pd #4 Contributions: How does learning about ancient history impact how you understand the world and our connections to other people, cultures, and countries? Learning about the ancient history of Mesopotamia impacts how I understand the world and my connections to other people. For example, I learned that the Mesopotamians invented writing. The Mesopotamians first recorded information thousands of years ago. Learning about ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand the origin of writing and why things are the way they are today. Things from ancient Mesopotamia also influenced our culture, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh influenced superheroes. In conclusion, learning about the history of ancient Mesopotamia impacts how I understand the world and my connections to other people. Culture: How does the development of culture impact history, and why does it evolve and change over time? Learning about development of culture in Mesopotamia and why it evolves and changes over time impacts how I understand history. For example, I learned that agriculture is very important to history. Without agriculture, everyone would be hunting and gathering all of the time, and we would not have as good as an education. One artifact, a stone "arm", was part of an ancient household. The stone "arm" acted like a door hinge, which shows that agriculture allowed people to stay in one place without moving all of the time. Agriculture evolved and changed over time, which created better farming practices and tools, such as more advanced plows. Also, many things that were invented in ancient Mesopotamia are still in use today, such as glass. These things helped develop more advanced technology. Learning about the development of culture in ancient Mesopotamia and why it evolves and changes over time impacts how I understand history today. Geography: How does geography influence how people live, move, and define regions? Learning how geography influenced how people lived, moved, and defined regions in ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand more about the people of ancient Mesopotamia. For example, I learned that the geography influenced how people grew crops. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flooded regularly to water crops, but too little or too much flooding could cause the destruction of crops. The two rivers also deposit silt, or fine particles of soil, which made the soil fertile. Learning about how the geography influenced how people lived, moved, and defined regions in ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand more about the people living there. Religion: What is the function of religion in ancient civilizations, and how does it still impact today s world? Learning about the function of religion in ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand how it still impacts today's world. For example, I learned that the ancient Mesopotamians' religion was polytheistic. A polytheistic religion means that the religion worships more than one god. The religion in ancient Mesopotamia helped them understand the world around them, since science didn't exist back then. In the ancient Mesopotamians' religion, the gods controlled different parts
of nature, and they believed that they would be punished if they didn't keep the gods happy. So, they made sacrifices to keep the gods happy so they would get what they needed. Religion also made people feel better. It still impacts today's world by that the religions that exist today believed in one god, but it was still a god. Learning about the function of religion in ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand how it still impacts today's world. History: How do we use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding? We use inferences and connections from reliable sources so that we could build understanding about ancient Mesopotamia. For example, I learned about the relationship between the gods and people in ancient Mesopotamia from a Sumerian prayer, which showed the personal thoughts and feelings from someone from that time. The relationship between the gods and people is that the people feared the gods, but respect them, while the gods took advantage of the people. Since the people feared the gods, they tried to keep them happy so nothing bad would happen to them and that they could avoid punishment. The people worshipped the gods, but didn't understand them. Using inferences and connections from reliable sources helps us build understanding about ancient Mesopotamia. Government: How does power define ancient and modern day governments, and why/how has the structure of power evolved over time? Learning about how power defines the government of ancient Mesopotamia helps me figure out how the structure of power evolved over time. For example, I learned that the law in ancient Mesopotamia was based off of Hammurabi's Code, and set of laws written by a man named Hammurabi. Hammurabi's Code had an eye for an eye judgment and equal judgment. An eye for an eye judgment means that if you do something to someone, it will happen to you, while in an equal judgment, everyone is treated the same no matter how wealthy under the law. With Hammurabi's Code, gods, kings, priests, the rich and powerful, and adults had power in ancient Mesopotamia. The reason for this being that they are able to punish others, mainly that so they could keep their own status and control over whatever. Now, however, most laws are equal judgment. Learning about how power defines the government of ancient Mesopotamia helps me understand how the structure of power evolved over time.
Ariel pd. #1 Contributions: How does learning about ancient history impact how you understand the world and our connections to other people, cultures, and countries? Learning about the ancient history of Mesopotamia impacts how I understand the world and my connections to other people. For example, I learned about advances in technology (like writing). I can connect this to our culture today because I can now understand where writing came from and how we use/understand it. If we didn't have writing then the world would be completely different, for example we wouldn't be able to communicate with each other or be able to read. Culture: How does the development of culture impact history, and why does it evolve and change over time? Learning about the devolvement of culture impacts our history and changes over time. For example, if the farmers didn't have a surplus with their food, then cities would have never been created. If the cities haven't been created or we didn't have a surplus with the food then we wouldn't live as long. Also if there was no writing or glass then we would have no technology. With having no technology we wouldn't write, read, or communicate with each other as easily as we do today. Geography: How does geography influence how people live, move, and define regions? Learning about the development of geography influenced the way people lived, moved, and defined regions. For example, geography influenced farming. The Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers flooded bringing in silt. When they got silt it fertilized the soil causing a surplus of food. With the surplus of food it allowed them to stay in one place for a long period of time, allowing them to build cities. With cities being built they started making jobs and since the farmers had more food than they needed, they just traded it for other stuff that they needed, like clothes, tools, etc.
History: How do we use inferences and connections from reliable sources to build understanding? Using inferences and connections from reliable sources up us build understanding about ancient Mesopotamia. For example, if we didn't have the Sumerian prayer/ poem then we wouldn t be able to know the Sumerians thoughts and feelings. Without using this information from a reliable primary source then we would never knew how the Mesopotamians prayer was about their relationship with the gods. The Sumerians felt many different ways about the gods, for example, fear/respect, master/servant, lack understanding, desire to appease/ keep happy, easily change their mind, etc. Without any of this information we wouldn't be able to know any of this and still might be trying to figure it out today. Government: How does power define ancient and modern day governments, and why/how has the structure of power evolved over time? Power defines ancient and modern governments in many ways as it evolves over time. In ancient Mesopotamia they often used the Code of Hammurabi, the kings, gods, wealthy, adults, and men had all of the power. The people that had power often used it to maintain control of others and their status. But over time this has evolved because now everyone is treated the same no one is treated unfairly. For example back then if you were to hit your father then you would get your hand cut off. But now if you hit your father you get yelled at and maybe a time out.