Indiana Social Studies WG.4.6
The Standard
Map the distribution patterns and concentration areas of the world’s major religions and identify cultural features and population centers associated with each.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies · Characteristics, Distribution, and Complexity of Cultural Mosaics
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students map where major religions are concentrated and where they have large communities. They label population centers and connect them to cultural features, such as places of worship and pilgrimage sites.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Students place Hinduism mainly in South Asia and Islam across North Africa and Southwest Asia, while also marking Indonesia's large Muslim population. They can connect Jakarta to the Istiqlal Mosque and Varanasi to Hindu pilgrimage along the Ganges.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may assume each religion belongs to one country or that everyone in a shaded area shares the same faith. They may treat Jerusalem as a city associated with only one religion.
How to Assess It
- Give students a blank world map. Ask them to shade one concentration area each for Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism, then label two cities and a cultural feature linked to each.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs an outline map and atlas to shade religion concentrations, label Jakarta and Varanasi, and mark a mosque and pilgrimage site.
Show photos of the Istiqlal Mosque and a Varanasi ghat; ask students to write how each site connects to its city.
Have teams match city, religion, and cultural-feature cards, then check each match against an annotated world map.
Use a local map to find two different places of worship, then compare their locations with patterns on a world religion map.
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Printable WG.4.6 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- GHW.2.1
Map the development over time of world religions from their points of origin, and identify those that exhibit a high degree of local and/or international concen...
- WG.4.7
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- 7.H.2
Describe, compare, and contrast the historical origins, central beliefs and features, and spread of major religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Chri...
- GHW.3.1
Map and analyze the distribution of the world's human population for different time periods, noting the population characteristics and population density for sp...
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