Indiana Social Studies WH.1.1
The Standard
Describe and evaluate social, cultural, and economic changes of small agriculture communities which led to the development of large agricultural settlements, such as the movement from hunting and gathering societies to civilization.
2026 Indiana Academic Standards: K-12 Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students trace how farming and food storage helped small villages grow into larger settlements. They explain changes in work, trade, rules, and daily life. They weigh benefits against costs.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can use clues such as storage pits and clustered homes to explain how farming supported more people and new jobs. They can name a benefit, such as stored food for lean seasons, and a cost, such as disease in crowded settlements.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think people stopped hunting as soon as they planted crops. They may also assume farming made everyone healthier and equally wealthy.
How to Assess It
- Show a sketch of grain storage pits and tightly packed homes. Ask: How could storing crops help this village grow, and what is one benefit and one possible cost of that growth?
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give each table 12 bean tokens; spend eight feeding farmers, then decide whether the leftovers can support a full-time potter.
Write about whether you would choose a farming village or a hunting and gathering group, using two benefits or costs to explain why.
Give pairs cards labeled planted crops, stored surplus, new jobs, trade, and village rules; have them build and defend a cause-and-effect chain.
Bring a grocery receipt; trace bread through a farmer, miller, driver, and cashier, then compare those jobs with work in an early farming village.
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Printable WH.1.1 Worksheet
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Related Standards
- 4.G.7
Identify migration patterns into and out of the state and explain how they contributed to the early development and cultural structures of communities.
- GHW.1.3
Identify and describe the factors that explain how the local and regional human and physical environments of selected culture hearths were modified over time in...
- GHW.1.2
Analyze agricultural hearths and exchanges of crops among regions. Evaluate the impact of agriculture on the subsequent development of cultural hearths in vario...
- S.8.1
Describe how and why societies change over time.
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