Texas TEKS 7.19.A

Social Studies7th GradeScience, technology, and society

The Standard

compare types and uses of technology, past and present

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies

Teacher's field guide

What Students Need to Do: Students identify technologies from different time periods and explain how people used them. They compare tools that met the same need, such as communication, transportation, farming, or manufacturing.
What Mastery Looks Like: Students can name a past technology, match it with a present-day version, and describe each use. They can state one clear similarity and one clear difference.
Common Misconceptions: Students may assume newer technology always replaces older tools or always works better. They may compare appearance without explaining how people used each technology.
How to Assess It: Show images of a telegraph and a smartphone. Ask students to write each tool's use, one similarity, and one difference.

Lesson moves

Give pairs artifact cards, such as a washboard and washing machine, to sort by era, use, and human need.
Write a response to this prompt: Which changed daily life more, the railroad or the automobile, and why?
Play Technology Match, where students pair past tools with modern versions and earn a point for explaining their shared use.
Compare a paper map with a phone navigation app during a planned route across your town or city.

Keep exploring

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