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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 6 of 9

Science, Technology & Change

Inventions that shaped the world

What your child practices

Discoveries and inventions that shaped the world, how resources and political decisions affect technology, how communication and transportation spread cultures, and how people adapt to and change their environment.

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) teks student expectation: 6.5(A); 6.5(C); 6.15(B); 6.15(C); 6.18(A); 6.18(B); 6.18(C) · scientific discoveries and inventions, technology and cultural change, and changing the environment

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The steam engine powered factories, trains and ships.
  2. Louis Pasteur showed germs cause disease, leading to pasteurization.
  3. Jets, the internet (Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web) and phones let cultures share ideas quickly.

Example: Who invented the World Wide Web? It was made in 1989 to share documents online. A British scientist created it. Answer: Tim Berners-Lee

Science, Technology & Change in Texas

In the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), this is unit 6 of 9 in 6th grade Social Studies, after Cultures & Beliefs and before World Maps & Globes.

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: Texas Education Agency (TEA)

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

    Earthquake-resistant buildings in Japan show how people…

    • ignore hazards
    • cause earthquakes
    • adapt to physical processes
    • stop plate movement

  2. Question 2

    Wind and solar power are growing because they…

    • use no technology
    • cause oil spills
    • are renewable energy sources
    • burn coal

  3. Question 3

    Johannes Gutenberg's printing press helped ideas spread by making…

    • travel slower
    • reading harder
    • books faster and cheaper to produce
    • paper illegal

  4. Question 4

    Tim Berners-Lee invented the…

    • World Wide Web
    • telephone
    • printing press
    • steam engine

  5. Question 5

    Vaccines have changed societies by…

    • preventing deadly diseases
    • stopping trade
    • ending schools
    • causing hunger

  6. Question 6

    The Green Revolution used new seeds, fertilizer and irrigation to…

    • replace rice with wheat everywhere
    • reduce food supply
    • grow much more food
    • end farming

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