NY Social Studies 10.9a

Social Studies10th GradeKey Idea 10.9

The Standard

Technological changes in communication and transportation systems allow for instantaneous interconnections and new networks of exchange between people and places that have lessened the effects of time and distance.

New York State K–12 Social Studies Framework

Key Idea 10.9

GLOBALIZATION AND A CHANGING GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT (1990–PRESENT): Technological changes have resulted in a more interconnected world, affecting economic and political relations and in some cases leading to conflict and in others to efforts to cooperate. Globalization and population pressures have led to strains on the environment.

Teacher's field guide

What This Standard Means

What Students Need to Do

Students explain how digital communication, air travel, and modern shipping speed the movement of information, goods, money, and people. They examine who can access or control information and how technology changes business. They also trace the causes, effects, and responses to one infectious disease.

What Mastery Looks Like

Students can build a clear cause-and-effect chain using specific technologies and outcomes. They can explain both benefits and problems, such as faster trade, unequal internet access, misinformation, surveillance, or rapid disease spread.

Common Misconceptions

Students may assume everyone has equal internet access or that online information is never controlled. They may treat technology as entirely beneficial. They may also confuse faster disease spread through travel with the biological cause of an infection.

How to Assess It

Use this exit ticket: Explain how smartphones and air travel each connect distant places, then name one benefit and one risk linked to either technology.

Lesson moves

Ways to Teach It

  1. Students use yarn and labeled city cards to model how smartphones, air travel, and shipping connect information, goods, and disease responses.

  2. Ask students to write: Who gains power when information moves quickly, and who may be excluded or controlled?

  3. Students sort scenario cards into faster communication, faster transportation, information control, or disease response, then defend one disputed choice.

  4. Students trace a smartphone from raw materials to assembly, online sale, global shipping, and delivery, noting the technology used at each step.

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Printable 10.9a Worksheet

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