Indiana Social Studies GHW.9.2
The Standard
Identify and describe ways in which humans have used technology to modify the physical environment in order to settle areas in different world regions, and evaluate the impact of these technologies on the physical and human environments affected.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students explain how dikes, irrigation canals, or desalination plants made places easier to settle. They describe what changed for land, water, and people in different regions. They weigh the benefits against the costs.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can explain how Dutch dikes protect drained land for homes and how desalination supplies drinking water in the UAE. They can name costs, such as lost wetlands or salty wastewater, alongside the benefits.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a dike creates land, rather than keeping water off land that has been drained. They may assume desalination leaves no waste or that everyone benefits equally from a new water supply.
How to Assess It
- On an exit ticket, ask: How did Dutch dikes and UAE desalination make settlement easier? For each, name one benefit for people and one cost for the environment.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Use a tray of sand, water, and paper houses to test a dike, then draw where the water goes.
Ask: Would you build more Dutch polders if doing so removed wetlands? Write two benefits and two costs before deciding.
Play a card match with Dutch polders, UAE desalination, and Nile irrigation, pairing each with a settlement benefit and an environmental cost.
Show a photo of a local storm drain, then have students trace where rainwater goes and who might face flooding downstream.
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Printable GHW.9.2 Worksheet
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