Indiana Social Studies 6.H.9
The Standard
Explain the origin and spread of scientific, political, and social ideals associated with the Age of Enlightenment/Age of Reason.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how scientific inquiry and debates about government in Europe shaped ideas about reason, rights, and tolerance. They show how books, pamphlets, and salons spread those ideas.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how testing claims through observation influenced Enlightenment thinkers. They can name a political or social idea, such as natural rights or religious tolerance, and describe how it reached new audiences.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think one person invented all Enlightenment ideas or that the ideas spread at once. They may think natural rights were gifts from kings, or that calls for equality included everyone in practice.
How to Assess It
- Exit ticket: Explain how scientific inquiry influenced Enlightenment thinking. Name one idea about government or society and one way it spread.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs cards labeled scientific experiments, debates about kings, observation, natural rights, salons, and pamphlets; have them arrange paths from origins to audiences.
Ask, "Why might a king object to Locke's claim that people have natural rights?" Have students write a two-sentence reply.
Play a matching game with Newton, Locke, Montesquieu, and Voltaire cards paired with observation, natural rights, divided government, and tolerance.
Show a school newspaper and an online post; ask students to compare how they spread ideas with Enlightenment pamphlets and salons.
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Printable 6.H.9 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 5.H.8
Explain how the political, religious, and economic ideas brought about the American Revolution.
- WH.5.1
Explain the key developments of the Scientific Revolution and its impact on the world.
- WH.5.2
Explain the key ideas of the Enlightenment in European history, and describe its impact upon political and religious thought in Europe and the Americas, includi...
- 6.H.7
Analyze the interconnections of people, places, and events in the economic, scientific, and cultural exchanges of the European Renaissance that led to the Scien...
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