Lesson #36 - Early Life in the Americas

I suppose that today's blog entry will be the last to have "new" material for this quarter. Don't forget to get me the two "take-home" quizzes (8:3 and 9:3) if you have yet to do that.

The Americas: A Separate World - Chapter 9

We'll spend some time looking at the earliest civilizations of the Americas. I asked you to have a significant portion of your chart/matrix ready to go for today. Let's use that.

You can download another here if you need: Early American Civilizations

Here are the cultures where we will focus our attention:

• Olmec
• Zapotec
• Teotihuacan
• Chavin
• Moche
• Nazca

We'll see what themes and comparisons/contrasts we can draw here. First, let's look at the Mesoamerican civilizations, followed by those of the Andean mountains. Feel free to add detail to your own matrix as you see fit. I'll expect to hear from everyone at least once.

Once we've developed a better understanding of the American civilizations, it's time to compare them to the other areas that we have studied. "Afroeurasia" is a term used to refer to the land mass consisting of Africa, Europe and Asia. Basically, I want us to compare what we know about the Americas with what we know about the rest of the world. Of course, for those of you who like to keep things organized, here's a note guide for the Comparison of Empires and City-States: America and Afroeurasia.

Your portion of the "Two-Minute Drill" needs to be ready to go Wednesday. (You will have Thursday as a work day. You might want to do your DBQs that day.)

The objective portion of the Unit #2 Exam will be in class on Friday. The essay portion of the Unit #2 Exam is also due on Friday.