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7th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 14

Time & Evidence

BCE and CE, artifacts and sources

What your child practices

Counting years in BCE and CE, centuries and calendars, artifacts and archaeology, and judging primary and secondary sources about the ancient world.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 7.3; 7.4 · counting years in BCE and CE, and how artifacts give evidence about the past

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. BCE years count down to year 1; CE years count up. There is no year 0.
  2. To find years from a BCE date to a CE date, add the two numbers and subtract 1.
  3. The century is one more than the hundreds: 1450 CE is in the 15th century. Artifacts and sources are evidence.

Example: How many years from 100 BCE to 100 CE (there’s no year 0)? Add: 100 + 100 = 200. Subtract 1 for the missing year 0. 199 years. Answer: 199

Time & Evidence in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 2 of 14 in 7th grade Social Studies, after Maps, Graphs & Data and before First Farmers.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Archaeologists learn about the past by…

    • Guessing
    • Watching cartoons
    • Digging up and studying objects and sites
    • Reading only novels

  2. Question 2

    Which year is earlier: 500 BCE or 200 BCE?

    • 200 BCE
    • 500 BCE
    • Neither
    • They are the same

  3. Question 3

    Which came first?

    • The Magna Carta (1215 CE)
    • The first Olympic Games (776 BCE)
    • The building of the Great Pyramid (about 2560 BCE)
    • The fall of Rome (476 CE)

  4. Question 4

    Some calendars, like the Islamic and Chinese calendars, are based on…

    • The Olympics
    • Presidents
    • Tides only
    • The cycles of the moon

  5. Question 5

    What is an era?

    • A kind of map
    • A single day
    • A long period of history with shared features
    • A type of coin

  6. Question 6

    The Bronze Age got its name because people…

    • Used no tools
    • Painted things brown
    • Made tools from bronze, a mix of copper and tin
    • Lived in bronze houses

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