What does a student learn in StateTennessee,GradeGrade 7,SubjectSocial Studies?

The Eastern Roman Empire did not fall in 476 AD. It survived for another thousand years as the Byzantine Empire, keeping Roman law, the Latin language, and Greek culture alive while spreading Christianity across Europe and the Middle East.

Justinian was a Byzantine emperor who reshaped his empire through new laws, massive building projects like the Hagia Sophia, and military campaigns to reclaim lost territory. Students study why those changes still mattered long after his reign ended.

Justinian led military campaigns that pushed the Byzantine Empire's borders into parts of North Africa, Italy, and Spain. Students study what he conquered, why it mattered, and how long those gains held.

Justinian sent missionaries and built churches across the empire to spread Orthodox Christianity. His efforts shaped the religion and culture of Eastern Europe for centuries.

Students study Empress Theodora, Justinian's wife, who helped shape imperial policy, pushed for laws protecting women, and influenced key political decisions during the Byzantine Empire's peak.

Students learn what the Justinian Code was: a sweeping rewrite of Roman law that organized centuries of scattered rules into one clear legal system. That code shaped how courts and governments across Europe and the Middle East handled laws for centuries.

Justinian built the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople as a massive domed church that became one of the greatest buildings of the ancient world. Students learn why it mattered as a symbol of Byzantine power and engineering.

Students study why Constantinople's position between Europe and Asia made it a crossroads for trade and helped keep Roman and Greek ideas alive through the Middle Ages.

Students locate countries, cities, rivers, deserts, and other key features of the Middle East and North Africa on a map, learning how the physical landscape shaped where people settled and how empires formed.

Students locate the Arabian Peninsula on a map and learn why its desert climate, trade routes, and coastal access shaped the civilizations that developed there between 400 and 1500 AD.

Students locate the Arabian Sea on a map and learn how this body of water shaped trade and travel between the Middle East, East Africa, and South Asia during the medieval period.

Students locate the Black Sea on a map and learn why its position between Europe and Asia made it a key route for traders and travelers during the medieval period.

Students locate the Euphrates River on a map and learn why this river was central to early farming, trade, and city growth across what is now Iraq and Syria.

Students locate Mecca on a map and learn why this city in western Arabia became the spiritual center of Islam and one of the most significant cities in the medieval world.

Students locate the Mediterranean Sea on a map and learn how this body of water connected the civilizations of Southwest Asia, North Africa, and Europe through trade and travel during the medieval period.

Students locate the Persian Gulf on a map and explain why this body of water mattered to trade, travel, and power in the ancient and medieval Middle East.

Students locate the Red Sea on a map and learn why it mattered as a trade and travel route connecting Africa, Arabia, and the wider world during the medieval period.

Students locate the Tigris River on a map and learn how this major river shaped early cities and farming across what is now Iraq and the surrounding region.

Students trace how Islam began in 7th-century Arabia and learn its core beliefs and practices, including prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage. They look at how the faith spread and what it requires of its followers.

Mohammad founded Islam in the 600s AD on the Arabian Peninsula. Students learn who he was, why his life and teachings matter to the faith, and how his leadership shaped the religion and the region.

Students learn what the Quran and the Sunnah are, where they came from, and why Muslims treat them as the foundation of religious life and law.

Islam is built on belief in one God and five core duties: prayer, charity, fasting, pilgrimage, and a declaration of faith. Students learn what each duty requires and why these beliefs shaped daily life across the medieval Islamic world.

Students trace how merchants, travelers, and armies carried Islamic customs and the Arabic language across continents as trade routes and empires expanded between 400 and 1500 AD.

Scholars in Southwest Asia and North Africa made major advances in medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy during this period. Students study what those thinkers discovered and how their work shaped the modern world.

Students study the artistic traditions that came out of Southwest Asia and North Africa between 400 and 1500 AD, including architecture, calligraphy, and decorative design that shaped cultures across the region and beyond.

Students study how writers and poets from medieval Southwest Asia and North Africa shaped storytelling, poetry, and prose that influenced literature far beyond the region.

Scholars in Southwest Asia and North Africa made major advances in math during this period. Students study how those thinkers developed algebra, improved on earlier number systems, and built ideas that later spread to Europe.

Scholars in Southwest Asia and North Africa made lasting advances in medicine during this era. Students examine how doctors in the region documented diseases, developed treatments, and wrote medical texts that shaped healthcare in Europe and beyond for centuries.

Medieval scholars in Southwest Asia and North Africa advanced navigation by refining maps, improving instruments like the astrolabe, and developing methods sailors used to track position by stars. Their work helped make long ocean voyages possible.

Students study the scientific discoveries made by scholars in Southwest Asia and North Africa between 400 and 1500 AD, including advances in medicine, astronomy, and mathematics that shaped learning across the world.

Students learn why the Ottoman Empire rose to power, focusing on how Mehmed II captured Constantinople in 1453 and what that shift in control meant for trade, religion, and politics across the region.

Students trace how trade routes connected Asia, Africa, and Europe between 400 and 1500 AD, and examine how merchants grew more powerful by moving goods like spices, cloth, and paper across long distances.

Students learn to find and name West Africa's rivers, deserts, forests, and kingdoms on a map. The geography shaped where people settled, how trade moved, and which empires grew powerful.

Students find the Atlantic Ocean on a map of West Africa and explain how it shaped trade, travel, and contact with the outside world.

Djenne is a city in present-day Mali that became a major trading and learning center during West Africa's medieval empires. Students locate it on a map and learn why its position near the Niger River made it a hub for merchants and scholars.

Students locate the Sahara on a map and learn why this vast desert shaped trade routes and daily life across West Africa.

The Niger River is one of the longest rivers in Africa and runs through the heart of West Africa. Students learn where it sits on a map and why early kingdoms depended on it for trade, farming, and travel.

Students learn where Timbuktu sits on a map and why it mattered. Located near the Niger River in present-day Mali, it was one of West Africa's most important centers for trade and Islamic scholarship between 400 and 1500 AD.

Students learn about the spiritual beliefs that West African societies practiced before and alongside Islam, including the idea that ancestors and natural forces like rivers, trees, and animals hold spiritual power.

Students trace how three powerful West African kingdoms grew wealthy through trade, then look at cities like Timbuktu as hubs where merchants, scholars, and new ideas met.

Students trace how trading salt and gold across the Sahara brought new religions and languages into West African kingdoms, including how Islam and Arabic spread along those same routes.

Griots were storytellers and historians who passed down West African history through spoken word, poetry, and song. Students learn how these keepers of community memory preserved culture across generations before written records were common.

Students learn who Mansa Musa was, why his 1324 journey from Mali to Mecca mattered, and how his wealth and influence put West Africa on the map for the rest of the world.

Students find and label physical features like rivers, mountain ranges, and coastlines on a map of East Asia, alongside political borders and major cities from this period.

Students find China on a map and label its major geographic and political features, such as rivers, mountain ranges, and borders.

The Gobi Desert is a vast, cold desert stretching across northern China and southern Mongolia. Students learn to find it on a map and understand how its harsh terrain shaped trade routes and the movement of people across East Asia.

Students find the Himalayan Mountains on a map and learn why this massive mountain range shaped where people settled, traded, and built civilizations across East Asia.

Students find Japan on a map and identify its key geographic features, including the islands, mountain ranges, and surrounding seas that shaped how Japanese society developed over centuries.

Students find the Korean Peninsula on a map and explain how its location between China and Japan shaped the region's history and culture.

Students find the Pacific Ocean on a map and learn that it borders East Asia to the east, shaping how China and Japan traded, traveled, and connected with the wider world.

The Plateau of Tibet is a vast, high-altitude region in central Asia, often called "the roof of the world." Students locate it on a map and explain how its extreme elevation shaped the movement of people, trade, and culture across East Asia.

Students find and label the sea that sits between Japan and the Korean Peninsula on a map of East Asia.

Students find the Yangtze River on a map and learn why it mattered: China's longest river ran through the heart of the country, shaping where people settled, farmed, and traded for centuries.

The Yellow River stretches across northern China and was central to early Chinese civilization. Students learn to find it on a map and understand why its floods and fertile soil shaped where people settled and farmed.

China reunified under the Sui Dynasty after centuries of division. Students learn how its rulers brought the country back together, spread Buddhism across the region, and built the Grand Canal to move goods and troops across the land.

Students learn what changed in China during the Tang Dynasty, from new inventions like gunpowder to the revival of long-distance trade routes connecting China to the rest of the world. They also look at how Confucian ideas spread and shaped daily life and government.

During China's Song Dynasty, engineers and farmers developed tools and crops that changed how people ate and traveled. Students study these advances alongside a new exam system that let men earn government jobs based on knowledge rather than family connections.

Students trace how Genghis Khan built one of history's largest empires through military conquest, then follow his grandson Kublai Khan as he took control of China and founded the Yuan Dynasty.

Students study how Mongol rulers reshaped trade across Asia and Europe, then trace how Marco Polo's journeys carried Chinese inventions like paper and gunpowder west and opened new routes for merchants along the Silk Road.

Students study why Ming Dynasty China turned inward after centuries of expansion, looking at massive building projects like the Forbidden City and Great Wall alongside the sea voyages of explorer Zheng He.

Shinto is Japan's oldest religion, rooted in the belief that spirits called kami live in natural places like mountains, rivers, and trees. Students learn where it came from and what its core practices and beliefs look like.

Shinto is Japan's oldest religion, rooted in the belief that spirits called kami live in natural places like mountains, rivers, and forests. Students learn where these beliefs came from and what practices, like rituals and shrines, sit at the center of Shinto life.

Shinto has no single holy book. Beliefs and practices were passed down through stories, rituals, and ceremonies rather than written scripture.

Shinto is Japan's oldest religion. Students learn that it centers on spirits called kami found in nature, that rituals connect living people to their ancestors, and that those practices have been passed down with care for centuries.

Students learn how Japan borrowed ideas from China and Korea, adopting their writing system and religious beliefs, and how Prince Shotoku used those ideas to shape Japanese laws and government.

During Japan's Heian period, a small noble class shaped what it meant to be distinctly Japanese, developing their own writing system, art forms, and stories, including what many consider the world's first novel.

Japan shifted from emperor-led rule to military rule around the 1180s. Students explain how shoguns held real political power and how samurai warriors enforced that power and shaped daily life.

Reading a map of Europe, students find and name the major mountains, rivers, seas, and other landforms that shaped where people settled and how kingdoms formed during the Middle Ages.

Students find the Alps on a map of Europe and explain how this mountain range shaped where people settled, traveled, and traded during the Middle Ages.

Students locate the Atlantic Ocean on a map of Europe and recognize it as the western boundary that shaped trade routes, exploration, and contact between continents during the Middle Ages.

Students find the English Channel on a map and learn why this narrow strip of water between England and France mattered for trade, invasion, and control of northern Europe.

Students find the Iberian Peninsula on a map of Europe: the large landmass in the southwest, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, where Spain and Portugal sit today.

Students find and label the Mediterranean Sea on a map of Europe, recognizing it as the large body of water that connects Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Students find the North European Plain on a map and explain why this flat, fertile stretch of land became one of the most traveled and settled regions in medieval Europe.

Monasteries were centers of learning where monks copied books and manuscripts by hand, keeping ancient knowledge alive. They also helped spread the Catholic Church's influence by establishing communities across Europe.

Charlemagne united much of Europe under one ruler in the 800s. Students explain how his reign spread Christianity, set the rules of feudal society, and laid the groundwork for what became the Holy Roman Empire.

Feudalism was the system of lords, knights, and peasants that organized medieval Europe. Students explain how that system shaped daily life on a manor and why towns began to grow as trade slowly replaced farming as the main way people made a living.

Students learn why the 1066 Battle of Hastings still matters: William the Conqueror's victory reshaped English government, mixed French words into the English language, and spread the feudal system of lords and peasants across England and northern France.

Kings and popes in medieval Europe sometimes worked together to strengthen each other's power, and sometimes clashed over who had the final say in running the church and the kingdom.

The Magna Carta was a 1215 agreement that forced the English king to follow the same laws as everyone else. Students study how it introduced the idea that no ruler is above the law and that people have the right to a fair trial.

Students study why Christian and Muslim rulers launched the Crusades, what those wars changed in Europe and the Middle East, and who shaped them, including the pope who called the first Crusade and the kings and generals who fought it.

The Crusades were religious wars that pulled Christians, Muslims, and Jews into conflict across Europe and the Middle East. Students examine how those wars changed each group's daily life and how repeated contact between distant cultures reshaped European society.

The Black Death was a plague that swept from Asia to Europe in the 1300s, killing roughly a third of Europe's population. Students explain how that death toll shattered farming, trade, and the social order that held medieval society together.

The Black Death killed about a third of Europe's population in the 1300s. Students study how that loss of life reshaped farming, trade, and wages in ways that pushed Europe toward a more modern economy.

The Black Death killed so many farmers that surviving workers could demand better pay and working conditions. That shift pushed landowners to try new tools and farming methods to grow more food with fewer hands.

The Black Death killed so many workers that surviving laborers could demand better pay and conditions. Students examine how this shift in bargaining power helped move Europe away from feudal labor toward something closer to a modern economy.

The Black Death killed so many people that surviving peasants could demand better pay and more freedom. That shift helped break down the rigid feudal system where lords controlled almost everything.

The Black Death wiped out so many workers that survivors could demand higher wages, pushing more money into circulation. Students study how that shift pushed merchants and rulers to build early banking systems to manage wealth across cities and kingdoms.

The Black Death killed so many farm workers that surviving laborers could demand better pay and move to towns for work. Students examine how that population shift pushed medieval Europe toward a money-based economy and larger urban centers.

The Black Death wiped out so many workers that surviving laborers could demand better pay and conditions. That shift helped merchants grow into a powerful middle class between peasants and nobles.

The Hundred Years War was a long conflict between England and France that shaped both countries. Students explain how England's King Henry V influenced the English language and how Joan of Arc became a lasting symbol of French national identity.

Spain and Portugal grew into powerful kingdoms after centuries of Christian rulers fighting to retake the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rule. Students learn what the Reconquista and the Inquisition were and why both reshaped who held power in the region.

Students learn how Muslim and Jewish scholars in Spanish cities like Toledo and Córdoba preserved and advanced ancient knowledge in math, medicine, and philosophy, ideas that helped spark the Renaissance across Europe.

Italy's position in the center of the Mediterranean Sea made its port cities natural hubs for trade. Merchants moving goods between Europe, Africa, and Asia also carried new ideas, art, and wealth into cities like Venice and Florence.

Florence, Italy, was where the Renaissance took hold first, largely because the Medici family used their banking wealth to pay artists and thinkers to do their best work. Students learn how money and power shaped an entire cultural movement.

Humanism was the Renaissance belief that studying history, literature, and philosophy makes people better thinkers. Renaissance scholars tried to hold faith and reason together, using both religion and careful observation to understand the world.

Renaissance art shifted from flat, symbolic images to paintings and sculptures that looked real. Students study key works and artists to understand how new ideas about the human body, perspective, and the natural world changed what art looked like and what it meant.

Students study Leonardo da Vinci as a defining figure of the Renaissance, looking at paintings like the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper to understand how his work changed what art could do and mean.

Students study Michelangelo as a key Renaissance artist, looking at how his sculpture of David and his painted ceiling in the Sistine Chapel showed a new focus on the human body and individual greatness.

Students learn who Brunelleschi was and why his work mattered. He designed the massive dome on Florence's cathedral and pioneered a drawing technique that made flat images look three-dimensional, changing how artists represented the world.

Students study how Shakespeare's plays and poems shaped the English language and storytelling traditions still used today.

Students examine how the printing press made books cheaper and easier to copy, and how translating the Bible into everyday English put reading within reach of ordinary people, not just scholars and clergy.

Students learn why the Protestant Reformation broke out in the 1500s, focusing on how the Catholic Church charged fees for forgiveness of sins and collected heavy taxes, and how Martin Luther's list of complaints sparked a religious split across Europe.

Students learn why some Christians in the 1500s broke away from the Catholic Church, questioning who held religious authority and how a person reaches salvation. Reformers like John Calvin argued that faith, not deeds, determined a person's fate.

Students learn how three English monarchs pulled the country between Catholic and Protestant rule, and why each ruler's personal choices reshaped the official religion of an entire nation.

Students study Queen Elizabeth I's reign and how England's navy defeated the Spanish Armada, shifting power across Europe and marking England's rise as a major force on the continent.

Students examine how the Catholic Church fought back against the Protestant movement in the 1500s by reforming from within. Key figures include St. Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Jesuits, and the Council of Trent, which set new rules for Catholic practice.

Students compare three big ideas about how planets move: ancient Greeks believed Earth sat at the center of everything, Copernicus argued the Sun was the center, and Kepler showed planets travel in oval-shaped paths around the Sun.

Students learn what Galileo claimed about the solar system and how he improved tools like the telescope to support those ideas with direct observation rather than tradition or guesswork.

Students learn what Francis Bacon and Isaac Newton contributed to science. Bacon built the step-by-step process scientists still use to test ideas, and Newton explained why objects move, stop, and pull toward each other.

Maps of the Americas show a wide range of landforms and bodies of water. Students learn to find and name key physical features, from mountain ranges and river systems to coastlines and plains.

Students locate the Andes Mountains on a map and learn why this long mountain range along South America's western coast shaped where people settled, farmed, and built civilizations.

Students locate the Appalachian Mountains on a map and learn how this long mountain range shaped movement, settlement, and trade across eastern North America.

Students learn to find and label the Atlantic Ocean on a map of the Americas, recognizing it as the body of water along the eastern coastline that shaped trade, travel, and contact between continents.

Students learn where the Caribbean Sea sits on a map, placing it between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the island chains that connect North and South America.

The Central Mexican Plateau is a high, flat region in the middle of present-day Mexico where major civilizations, including the Aztec, built their cities. Students identify and locate it on a map.

The Great Plains is a vast stretch of flat, grassy land running through the middle of North America. Students find it on a map and learn how its open terrain and wildlife shaped the lives of the peoples who lived there.

Students identify and locate the Gulf of Mexico on a map, the large body of water bordered by the southern United States, Mexico, and Cuba that shaped trade, settlement, and daily life for indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Students find the Mississippi River on a map and learn why its location mattered to the people who lived along it, from farming and trade to travel across the continent.

Students find and label North America on a map, recognizing its major physical features such as mountain ranges, rivers, and coastlines in relation to the rest of the Americas.

Students find and label the Pacific Ocean on a map of the Americas, recognizing it as the vast body of water bordering the western coast of North and South America.

Students find the Rocky Mountains on a map and learn how this major western mountain range shaped where people settled, traveled, and traded across North America.

Students find and label South America on a map, including its major physical features like rivers, mountain ranges, and coastlines.

Students locate the Yucatan Peninsula on a map, the flat, jutting landmass between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea where the Maya built many of their major cities.

Geography shaped how Native American groups lived. Students study how landforms, climate, and resources led different regional groups to build different shelters, grow different foods, and dress for their surroundings.

North America was home to hundreds of distinct Native nations before European contact, each with its own language, government, and way of life. Students learn how those nations traded, organized themselves politically, and developed customs across different regions.

Geography shaped where Maya, Aztec, and Incan peoples settled and what they could grow. Students explain how mountains, rainforests, and dry plains pushed each civilization to develop farming methods that fit their land.

Students learn how Maya, Aztec, and Incan civilizations were organized, covering who held power, how trade worked, what people believed, and what these cultures built and discovered.

Students learn how a 15th-century Portuguese prince funded voyages, improved maps, and pushed sailors to use tools like the compass and astrolabe to find new sea routes along Africa and beyond.

Students look at why European countries sent explorers across the ocean in the 1400s and 1500s. The push came from three directions: spreading religion, outcompeting rival nations, and making money through trade and colonies.

Each major explorer sailed under a specific country's flag, and that sponsorship shaped where they went and what they claimed. Students learn which nations backed which voyages and why those routes changed what Europeans knew about the world.

Henry Hudson sailed for England, searching for a northern water route to Asia. His voyages mapped parts of present-day Canada and New York, leaving behind place names like Hudson Bay and the Hudson River.

Jacques Cartier sailed for France in the 1530s, exploring the St. Lawrence River and claiming parts of present-day Canada for the French crown. His voyages gave France its first foothold in North America.

Students study why Portugal sent ships south along Africa's coast and what Dias and da Gama discovered on those voyages, including the sea route that connected Europe to Asia.

Students trace the sea routes and key discoveries of four explorers sailing under Spain's flag: Columbus, de Soto, Magellan, and Vespucci. Each voyage reshaped what Europeans knew about the world.

Students locate French, Spanish, English, Dutch, and Portuguese colonies on a map of the Americas, then explain how each country's religion at home shaped which faith took root in the territories it controlled.

Students learn how contact between Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia after 1492 spread crops, animals, diseases, and ideas in both directions, and why those exchanges reshaped economies and daily life on each continent.

Students learn how Spanish conquistadors Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro brought down two of the most powerful empires in the Americas, and what combination of military force, disease, and local alliances made that possible.

Spanish colonization reshaped life across the Americas. Students study how Spain spread Christianity through missions, forced Indigenous people to labor under the encomienda system, and how one Spanish priest, Bartolome de las Casas, spoke out against that mistreatment.