Oklahoma Social Studies AWH.C.6.4.D

Social StudiesGrades 9–12Content Standards

The Standard

AWH.C.6.4: Describe the lasting impact of major accomplishments of the ancient Greeks.

Science and Engineering: Archimedes, Ptolemy

Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · AWH.C.6.4

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Explain how Archimedes used levers and water displacement to solve problems. Describe Ptolemy’s Earth-centered model and how he used coordinates to record places on maps.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can show where to place a lever’s fulcrum to lift a heavy object with less effort. They can label Ptolemy’s model and use latitude and longitude to find a place on a map.
Common Misconceptions: Students may think Archimedes invented the lever rather than explaining how it works. They may think Ptolemy’s Earth-centered model is still accepted, or confuse map coordinates with distances between places.
How to Assess It: On an exit slip, have students draw a lever with its fulcrum near a heavy rock and sketch Ptolemy’s Earth-centered model. Ask them to label each thinker.

Lesson moves

Set a ruler on a pencil, stack 10 pennies on one end, and move the pencil to test how many pennies lift them.
Draw Ptolemy’s Earth-centered model on the board and ask: Why might an observer without a telescope have accepted it?
Give pairs cards labeled lever, water displacement, Earth-centered model, and latitude-longitude grid; have them match each to Archimedes or Ptolemy.
Use a printed latitude-longitude map to locate a nearby city, then explain how Ptolemy used coordinates to record places.

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A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to AWH.C.6.4.D, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.

PDF, US Letter, prints cleanly in black and white.

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