Grade 3 Spring History - World Cultures in Depth and Toolmaking Across Time: Four Cultures, Six Source Types, and the Story of How Humans Have Solved Problems
History · ECO
G3 (D2.Eco.1-14.3-5; D2.Geo.7-8.3-5; NCSS-7,9)
hist.g3.s.eco.trade_networks_diffusion
Trace cultural diffusion along four named trade networks
Examine four named trade networks (Inca road; Trans-Saharan caravan; Silk Roads; Polynesian voyaging) on the Trade Networks Anchor (MG-9). Apply the diffusion routine: WHERE did the innovation start? HOW did it move? WHO carried it? WHAT did it change? Trace ONE innovation (paper from China to Baghdad to Cordoba; gold from Mali to Cairo to Venice; potato/quinoa from Andes to Spain to the world; breadfruit across the tropical Pacific). Refuse the 'European discovery' framing - originators are named. Vocabulary: trade network, cultural diffusion, caravan, chasqui, silk, paper, gold, salt, breadfruit, originator.
Mastery threshold
80%
Min instances
8
Typical minutes
50
Spaced intervals (days)
1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60
Prereqs
- Andean/Inca region deep-dive with Quechua and Aymara own-voice sources
- Mande/Mali/Timbuktu deep-dive with West African own-voice sources (statutory KS2 non-European study)
- Tang and Song China deep-dive with Chinese own-voice sources
- Polynesian voyaging and wayfinding deep-dive with Hokule'a own-voice sources
Common misconceptions
- 'Europeans discovered the potato' - the unit refutes this directly: the potato was DOMESTICATED by Andean peoples thousands of years before any European saw one. Europeans encountered the potato in the Andes; they did not invent it.
- 'The Silk Roads were just for silk' - the unit teaches that ideas, technologies, religions, and diseases all moved along the Silk Roads alongside trade goods; the network was a multi-directional cultural diffusion system.