Kansas Standard by Grade Level
for
Civics-Government, Economics, Geography, and History
CIVICS-GOVERNMENT – 7th Grade
Civics-Government Standard: The student uses a working knowledge and
understanding of governmental
systems of the United States and other nations with an emphasis on the
U. S. Constitution, the necessity for the rule of law, the civic values
of the American republican government, and the rights, privileges, and
responsibilities to become active participants in the democratic
process.
Benchmark 2: The student understands the shared ideals and the
diversity of American society and political culture.
Indicators: The student:
° 3. explains the importance of respect for the law, a good education,
work ethic, equal opportunity, and volunteerism.
Benchmark 3: The student understands how the U. S. Constitution
allocates and restricts power and responsibility in the government.
Indicators: The student:
8 D 1. compares the U. S. and Kansas Constitutions to identify the
major responsibilities of federal, state, and local governments.
6. analyzes the Declaration of Independence, the U. S. Constitution,
including the Pre-amble, the Kansas Constitution and other writings to
identify the essential ideas of American Constitutional governments.
ECONOMICS – 7th Grade
Economics Standard: The student uses a working knowledge and
understanding of major economic concepts, issues, and systems of the
United States and other nations; and applies decision making skills as
a consumer, producer, saver, investor, and citizen in an interdependent
world.
Benchmark 3: The student analyzes how different economic systems,
institutions, and incentives affect people.
Indicators: The student:
8 D 1. explains how positive and negative incentives affect the way
people behave (i.e. taking a driver’s education class to reduce
insurance costs; seeking a job with higher wages; paying a fine for
library books returned late; losing pay on the job for an unexcused
absence.
4. compares the exchange rates for different currencies.
Benchmark 4: The student analyzes the role of the government in the
economy.
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 1. gives examples of choices the government must make with limited
resources (i. e., highways, welfare, defense, education, social
security).
8 D 2. compares and contrasts government revenues and expenditures.
Benchmark 5: The student makes effective decisions as a consumer,
producer, saver, investor, and citizen.
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 1. uses product information to identify costs and benefits to make
informed choices among alternatives.
8 D 2. uses the concept of trade-offs to make a decision.
GEOGRAPHY – 7th Grade
Geography Standard: The student uses a working knowledge and
understanding of the spatial organization of Earth's surface and
relationships among people, places, and physical and human environments
in order to explain the interactions that occur in our interconnected
world.
Benchmark 1: Maps and Location: The student uses maps, graphic
representations, tools, and technolo-gies
to locate, use, and present information about people, places, and
environments.
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 1. locates major political and physical features of Earth from
memory and compares the relative locations of those features (See
Appendix 2 for assessment items).
° 2. develops and uses different kinds of maps, globes, graphs, charts,
databases, and models.
3. uses mental maps to answer geographic questions, and recognizes that
people's mental maps reflect an individual's attitudes toward places.
° 4. evaluates the relative merits of maps, graphic representations,
tools, and technologies in terms of their value in solving geographic
problems (e. g., map projections, aerial photo-graphs, satellite
images, geographic information systems).
° 5. uses geographic tools and technologies to pose and answer
questions about past and present spatial distributions and patterns on
Earth (illustrations: mountain ranges, river systems, field patterns,
settlements, transportation routes).
Benchmark 2: Regions: The student analyzes the spatial organization of
people, places, and environments that form regions on the Earth's
surface.
Indicators:
The student:
° 1. identifies and compares the physical and human characteristics of
world regions (e. g., Kansas and Eastern United States, locations,
topography, climate, vegetation, resources, people, religion, language,
customs, government, agriculture, industry, architecture, arts,
learning; Middle East and North Africa, South Asian, Europe, Latin
America, Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, Anglo America).
8 D 2. explains how U. S. and world regions are interdependent (i. e.,
through trade, diffusion of ideas, human migration, economic networks,
international conflicts, participation in international organizations).
3. identifies and explains the changing criteria that can be used to
define a region (e. g., physical characteristics, cultural elements,
human constructs).
° 4. identifies ways technology and culture have influenced regions (e.
g., perceptions of resource availability, predominance of specific
religions, economic development).
8 D 5. explains the effects of a label on the image of a region (i. e.,
Rust Belt, Tornado Alley, Sun Belt, "The Great American Desert").
Benchmark 3: Physical Systems: The student understands Earth's physical
systems and how physical processes shape Earth's surface.
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 2. explains patterns in the physical environment in terms of
physical processes (i. e., plate tectonics, glaciation, erosion and
deposition, hydrologic cycle, ocean and atmospheric circulation).
3. predicts the consequences of specific physical processes (e. g.,
hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, volcanic activity, monsoons).
° 4. describes and illustrates ecosystems in terms of their
biodiversity and productivity (e. g., food chains, plant and animal
communities, grasslands, temperate forests, tropical rain forests,
deserts, tundra, wetlands, marine environments).
8 D 5. explains the challenges faced by ecosystems (i. e., effects of
shifting cultivation, contami-nation of coastal waters, rain forest
destruction, desertification, deforestation, over-population, natural
disasters).
Benchmark 4: Human Systems: The student understands how economic,
political, cultural, and social
processes interact to shape patterns of human populations,
interdependence, cooperation, and conflict.
Indicators:
The student:
° 3. describes the patterns of cultural diffusion and the resulting
distinctive cultural landscapes (e. g., religion, language, technology,
customs, crops, foreign language newspapers and signs, ethnic
neighborhoods, surnames, foods, dress, religious symbols and buildings,
housing types, agricultural methods, settlement patterns).
6. explains how cooperation and conflict among peoples contribute to
political, economic, and social division of Earth's surface (e. g.,
local land use controversies, international hot spots, local
cooperative efforts, international alliances, European Union, NATO,
United Nations).
Benchmark 5: Human-Environment Interactions: The student understands
the effects of interactions between human and physical systems.
Indicators:
The student:
° 1. explains and analyzes the role of technology in past, present, and
future human modifications of the physical environment (e. g., dams,
irrigation, cloud seeding, movement of water, water-quality
alterations, fossil fuels, steel plow).
2. analyzes ways in which past and/ or present human systems develop in
response to conditions in the physical environment (e. g., irrigation
projects, transportation routes, time zones, field patterns, flood
control, earthquake preparedness, tornado and hurricane predictions and
precautions).
° 5. identifies and develops plans for the management and use of
renewable and nonrenewable resources (e. g., water, fossil fuels, land,
oceans, forests).
KANSAS HISTORY – 7th Grade
History Standard: The student uses a working knowledge and
understanding of significant individuals, groups, ideas, events, eras,
and developments in the history of Kansas, the United States, and the
world, utilizing essential analytical and research skills.
Benchmark 1: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments during the period of exploration in Kansas
(1541 -1820).
Indicators: The student:
1. compares and contrasts the foods, housing styles, and traditional
arts of early American Indian nations (e. g., Kansa, Osage, Wichita,
Pawnee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa).
8 D 2. explains how Long's classification of Kansas as the "Great
American Desert" influenced later U. S. government policy on American
Indian relocation.
3. describes the changes brought about by the interaction of American
Indians and the early explorers to the region.
Benchmark 2: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments during the era of migration.
Indicators: The student:
° 1. explains the effect on the way of life for at least one American
Indian nation relocated to Kansas (e. g., Kickapoo, Sac and Fox,
Delaware, Potawatomi, Shawnee).
8 D 2. compares and contrasts the views held by the federal and state
governments with that of the American Indians over use of the Kansas
frontier.
° 3. uses diaries and journals to analyze why families migrated.
4. describes life at a frontier military fort in Kansas (e. g., Fort
Leavenworth, Fort Scott, Fort Larned, Fort Hays).
5. discusses the U. S. military's impact on American Indians on the
Kansas plains.
Benchmark 3: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments of the territorial period and the Civil War in
Kansas.
Indicators: The student:
8 D 1. explains the concept of popular sovereignty under the
Kansas-Nebraska Act.
8 D 2. explains why control of the Kansas territorial government was
affected by the fight over slavery.
3. describes the influence of pro-and anti-slavery ideas on territorial
Kansas (e. g., Bleeding Kansas, border ruffians, bushwhackers,
jayhawkers, the Underground Railroad, free state, abolitionist).
4. describes the role of important individuals during the territorial
period (e. g., Charles Robinson, James Lane, John Brown, Clarina
Nichols, Samuel Jones, John W. Geary, David Atchison, Samuel Lecompt).
5. evaluates the Wyandotte Constitution with respect to the civil
rights of women and African Americans.
11 D 6. analyzes how the debate between Northern and Southern states on
the issue of slavery affected Kansas becoming a state.
7. describes the causes and the consequences of Quantrill's Raid on
Lawrence during the Civil War.
8. describes the economic effects of the Civil War on the people of
Kansas.
9. explains the significance of the Battle of Mine Creek as part of the
Civil War campaign of General Sterling Price.
Benchmark 4: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments during the period of expansion and development
in Kansas (1860s -1890s).
Indicators: The student:
1. explains why difficulties between American Indians and Whites in
western Kansas increased after the Civil War.
2. explains the migration patterns of the English, French, Germans,
German-Russians, and Swedes to Kansas.
8 D 3. describes the reasons for the Exoduster movement out of the
South to Kansas (i. e., free land, lynching, the rise of Jim Crow laws
in the South).
° 4. explains one process of acquiring land in Kansas outlined in the
land laws.
5. interprets and uses primary source documents to interpret
adaptations made by Kansas settlers to the physical environment.
8 D 6. describes the development of Populism in Kansas (i. e.,
disillusionment with big Eastern business, railroads, government
corruption, the plight of the farmer).
8 D 7. describes the impact of railroad expansion in Kansas to or upon
town development, the cattle industry, and agricultural settlement.
Benchmark 5: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments in the period of
industrialization and modernization in Kansas (1890s -1920s).
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 1. explains the accomplishments of the Progressive movement in
Kansas (i. e., regulating the sale of stocks and bonds, workman's
compensation, inspection of meat processing plants, public health
campaigns).
2. explains the reasons for the prohibition campaign of Carry A.
Nation.
8 D 3. describes the significance of farm mechanization in Kansas (i.
e., increased farm size and production, specialized crops, population
redistribution).
4. explains the impact of the growth of mining in southeast Kansas on
the population and economic conditions of the region.
5. explains the significance of the work of Kansans on the future of
the aviation industry (e. g., Earhart, Longren, Cessna, Beech,
Stearman).
6. describes the movement for women's suffrage and its effect on Kansas
politics (e. g., the fight for universal suffrage, impact of women on
local elections).
° 7. explains the challenges German Americans faced in Kansas during
World War I (e. g., discrimination, movement against German languages).
° 8. explains the connection between Mexican immigrants and the
railroad.
Benchmark 6: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments of the Depression and World War II in Kansas
(1920s -1940s).
Indicators:
The student:
1. describes the emergence and growth of the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas
during the 1920s and the ways William Allen White used the Emporia
Gazette to raise awareness.
8 D 2. compares agricultural practices before and after the dust storms
of the 1930s (i. e., rotation of crops, shelter belts, irrigation,
terracing, stubble mulch).
3. uses local resources to describe conditions in his/ her community
during the Great Depression.
° 4. summarizes the effects of New Deal programs on Kansas life.
° 5. explains how World War II acted as a catalyst for change in Kansas
(e. g., women entering work force, increased mobility, changing
manufacturing practices).
Benchmark 7: The student understands individuals, groups, ideas,
events, and developments in contemporary Kansas (since 1950).
Indicators:
The student:
8 D 1. uses a time line to trace the events that led to the Supreme
Court decision in Brown v.Topeka Board of Education.
5. describes major flood control projects in the 1950s.
Benchmark 8: The student engages in historical thinking skills.
Indicators:
The student:
° 1. examines historical materials relating to Kansas history, analyzes
changes over time, and makes logical inferences concerning cause and
effect.
° 2. uses basic research skills to conduct an independent investigation
of an event in Kansas history.
8 D 3. examines historical documents, artifacts, and other materials of
Kansas history and analyzes them in terms of credibility, purpose,
perspective, or point of view.
° 4. compares different historians' descriptions of the same event in
Kansas history to examine how the choice of questions and the use of
sources may affect their conclusions.