OVERVIEW

Activity Overview:

Civilizations by the mile is a 6th grade social studies lesson with a focus on comparing and contrasting the different lengths of roads and routes established in different cultures. It could be used with any subset of cultures that travel or even animal migrations (wildebeest, pronghorn, albatross, caribou etc.). This lesson uses Roman and Inca cultures as well as the Silk Road and the Oregon trail. We will compare lengths of roads by using a Microbit set up as a pedometer to measure distance and number of steps.

Meta description

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Mathematics, Social Studies, Technology
• Grade Level : 6-8
• Computer Science Domains:
  • Computing Systems, Algorithms and Programming
• Computer Science Principles:
  • Recognizing and Defining Computational Problems, Developing and Using Abstractions
• Materials:
  • Website, Micro:bit, https://makecode.microbit.org/
• Considerations:
  • This is an unrefined lesson and has not been tried before. Feel free to modify as you see fit.

Lesson Plan

Overview

Civilizations by the mile is a 6th grade social studies lesson with a focus on comparing and contrasting the different lengths of roads and routes established in different cultures. It could be used with any subset of cultures that travel or even animal migrations (wildebeest, pronghorn, albatross, caribou etc.). This lesson uses Roman and Inca cultures as well as the Silk Road and the Oregon trail. We will compare lengths of roads by using a Microbit set up as a pedometer to measure distance and number of steps.

ASSESSMENT PRE/POST-TEST

How can we show differences and similarities between these roads and routes?

OBJECTIVES

Students will be able to demonstrate: 1. Approximate lengths of roads or routes using microbit measurements. 2. Ability to program/code a microbit to measure steps. 3. Create visual representation of road lengths (at scale).

CATCH/HOOK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuV08zzRlxo

ACTIVITY INSTRUCTIONS

Students will research length of different roads, road networks and routes and demonstrate their relative lengths to scale using a microbit programmed to count steps.

Supplements

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REVIEW

We would wrap this lesson up by reviewing which cultures built the longest roads and starting to compare them to the modern U.S. highway system. The assessment for this lesson is the demonstration of road length to scale.

STANDARDS