What does a student learn in StateTennessee,GradeGrade 6,SubjectSocial Studies?

Reading a timeline means knowing what BC, AD, and BCE stand for and understanding that BC years count backward. Students practice placing events in order and calculating how far apart they happened.

Students read timelines that count years before the birth of Christ. BC and BCE mean the same thing and label dates that get larger as you go further back in history.

Students read a timeline and understand that AD and CE mean the same thing: years counted forward from a fixed point about 2,000 years ago, up to and including today.

Students learn to read historical timelines using shorthand like "c." (which means "around that year"), plus terms for groupings of 10 and 100 years. These tools help make sense of dates when ancient history can't be pinned down exactly.

Paleolithic societies were small, nomadic groups that moved constantly to hunt animals and gather wild plants. Students examine how these early people lived before farming existed, focusing on their tools, social organization, and daily survival.

Paleolithic people made simple tools like spears and hand axes to hunt animals for food. Students look at how these early weapons shaped daily survival before farming existed.

Students learn how early humans discovered and used fire for warmth, cooking, and protection, and how controlling fire changed daily life long before the first cities appeared.

Early humans moved constantly to find food, following animals to hunt and gathering wild plants to eat. They had no permanent homes or farms.

Paleolithic people built temporary shelters from materials close at hand: animal hides, branches, or stone. They moved often enough that a permanent home made no sense.

Paleolithic people shaped stones, bones, and sticks into tools for hunting, cutting, and scraping. Students examine how these early handmade tools shaped daily life before metals or farming existed.

The Neolithic Revolution is when humans shifted from hunting and gathering food to farming and raising animals. Students study how that change led to permanent villages, new tools, and the first organized societies.

Students learn how early humans shifted from hunting and gathering food to growing crops and raising animals, and why that change allowed people to settle in permanent communities for the first time.

Students learn how early people figured out how to grow crops and raise animals instead of constantly moving to find food, and how that shift allowed the first permanent settlements to form.

Farming gave early humans a reliable food supply, so groups stopped moving and built permanent villages. Students study how this shift from wandering to settling down changed the way people organized their lives and communities.

When early humans learned to farm and store crops, they produced more food than they needed to survive. That extra food freed some people from farming, allowing communities to grow and specialists like builders or traders to emerge.

Students learn how farming surpluses led people to trade goods instead of making everything themselves, and how that exchange of goods grew into early economic systems.

When early humans settled into farming villages, not everyone had to grow food. Some people became potters, weavers, or metalworkers. Students learn how dividing up jobs helped early civilizations grow more complex.

Students learn how farming and herding gave early people wool, leather, and animal hides to wear, and how permanent crops meant building lasting homes instead of moving with the seasons.

Early civilizations shared certain building blocks: a food supply, government, social structure, writing, and shared beliefs. Students identify these features and explain why each one was needed for a society to hold together.

Culture is the set of shared beliefs, customs, art, and ways of life that hold a group of people together. Students study how early civilizations developed distinct identities through religion, language, and daily practice.

Students learn what made early governments necessary: who held power, how rules were enforced, and why organized leadership helped large communities survive together.

Students learn how early civilizations organized shared beliefs into formal religions, and why those belief systems shaped laws, leadership, and daily life in ancient societies.

Social structure is how a society organizes its people into groups, with some holding more power or wealth than others. Students study how early civilizations divided people into roles like farmers, priests, rulers, and craftworkers.

A stable food supply means a society can reliably grow or raise enough food to feed its people year after year. Students learn why this was the first condition that made permanent settlements and early civilizations possible.

Technology in early civilizations means the tools and inventions people developed to solve everyday problems. Students study how early humans created things like plows, pottery, and irrigation systems, and why those inventions changed how communities grew and survived.

Students learn why the invention of writing was a turning point for early civilizations, letting people record laws, trade deals, and history for the first time instead of relying on memory alone.

Students locate rivers, plains, and deserts on a map to see why early people settled where they did in ancient Mesopotamia. Geography shaped where cities grew and how people survived.

Students locate the Euphrates River on a map of ancient Mesopotamia, one of the two great rivers that made farming and early city life possible in the region.

Students find the Mediterranean Sea on a map of the ancient world and learn why its location mattered to early civilizations growing up around its shores.

Students learn to find and identify the Persian Gulf on a map of ancient Mesopotamia, the body of water that sits at the southern end of the region where some of the world's earliest civilizations developed.

Students find the Tigris River on a map of ancient Mesopotamia, one of two rivers that made farming possible in the region and helped early cities take root.

Students point out the Zagros Mountains on a map of ancient Mesopotamia. This mountain range runs along the eastern edge of the region, forming a natural border that shaped where early settlements grew.

Students learn why ancient people settled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where rich soil, reliable water, and a mild climate made farming possible for the first time on a large scale.

Students trace how early farmers used tools like the plow and wheel, water channels, and working animals to grow more food and build more stable communities.

When early farmers grew more food than they needed, villages grew into cities, merchants began trading goods across long distances, and powerful city-states like Ur rose as centers of wealth and government.

Students learn what a monarchy is (rule by a single king or queen) and what an empire is (many lands under one ruler). They also study why Mesopotamia, in modern-day Iraq, is considered the world's first empire.

Students describe how ancient Mesopotamian society was divided by rank, from kings and priests at the top to farmers and slaves at the bottom, and explain what determined a person's place in that order.

Students learn how ancient Mesopotamians worshipped many gods, each tied to forces like storms, rivers, and harvests, and how those gods shaped daily decisions, laws, and rituals across the region.

Students study the first major inventions of ancient Mesopotamia, including its writing system, its temple towers, and the world's oldest known epic story.

Students read Hammurabi's Code, one of the world's oldest written legal systems, and consider what it reveals about fairness, punishment, and who held power in ancient Babylon.

Students locate key places on a map of ancient Egypt, such as the Nile River, the Mediterranean Sea, and major cities. They explain how the land's geography shaped where Egyptians settled and how the kingdom was organized.

Students find the Mediterranean Sea on a map and explain how it shaped ancient Egypt's trade routes and connections to other civilizations.

Students learn where the Nile River fans out into smaller streams before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. This triangular region of fertile land was one of the most productive farming areas in the ancient world.

Students learn where the Nile River sits on a map and why ancient Egyptians built their civilization along its banks, using the river for water, farming, and travel.

Students locate Nubia on a map and learn how this region south of Egypt along the Nile shaped trade, conflict, and cultural exchange between the two civilizations.

Students find the Red Sea on a map and learn why it mattered to ancient Egypt as a trade and travel route connecting Egypt to other civilizations.

Maps of ancient Egypt can look upside-down at first. Upper Egypt sits in the south, where the Nile begins its flow north, and Lower Egypt fans out near the Mediterranean coast in the north.

Students locate the Sahara Desert on a map and learn why its vast, dry expanse acted as a natural barrier that shaped where ancient Egyptians settled and how they were protected from invasion.

Farmers in ancient Egypt shaped nearly everything about daily life. Students learn how Egyptians used irrigation channels to water crops along the Nile and built a calendar to track its annual flood.

Ancient Egypt ran on a strict social ladder. Students learn who held power at the top (pharaoh, priests, nobles), who did the daily work in the middle (scribes, craftspeople, farmers), and who sat at the bottom (servants and enslaved people).

Ancient Egyptian society sorted people into ranks based on their job. Pharaohs and priests sat at the top, farmers and laborers at the bottom, with scribes, soldiers, and craftspeople filling the middle.

Enslaved people in ancient Egypt did the hardest physical labor, from hauling stone to farming fields, with no freedom and no pay. Students learn what that forced work looked like and what it meant for the people who had no choice in it.

The pharaoh sat at the top of Egyptian society, treated as both a living god and a king. Students learn why this belief gave the pharaoh absolute power over the land, its people, and its religion.

Ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods and believed the body needed to be preserved after death to live on in the afterlife. Students explain why Egyptians mummified the dead and how those beliefs shaped their religion.

Key leaders and thinkers shaped how Egypt was governed, built, and remembered. Students study specific figures to understand how one person's decisions could change a civilization.

Queen Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as pharaoh and expanded its wealth through trade. Students study how her leadership and economic decisions helped Egypt grow during her reign.

Students learn why finding Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 mattered. Because the tomb was nearly untouched, the gold, furniture, and writings inside gave historians their clearest look yet at how Egyptian royalty lived and were buried.

Students learn how Ramses II expanded Egypt's borders through war and diplomacy, and how those campaigns made Egypt one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient world.

Students study the major accomplishments of ancient Egypt, from a writing system carved into stone walls to giant pyramids and the Sphinx still standing in the desert today.

Students study how Egypt and Nubia shaped each other through trade and war. Goods, beliefs, and customs crossed borders in both directions, so neither civilization stayed the same.

Maps of ancient Israel show students where key cities, rivers, and regions sat, and how those boundaries shifted as the kingdom grew, split, and changed hands over centuries.

Students find the Dead Sea on a map and learn why it matters: it sits at the lowest point on Earth's surface, bordered ancient Israel to the east, and is so salty that nothing lives in it.

Students learn where Jerusalem sits on a map and why it mattered as the political and religious center of ancient Israel.

Students find the Jordan River on a map and learn why it mattered to ancient Israel. It runs from the Sea of Galilee south to the Dead Sea, forming a natural border and a main water source for the region.

Students find the Mediterranean Sea on a map of the ancient world and learn why its coastline mattered to trade, travel, and the spread of ideas across the region.

Students find the Red Sea on a map and learn how this body of water shaped trade routes and borders in the ancient world.

Students locate the Sinai Peninsula on a map and learn why this triangle of land between Egypt and the Arabian desert mattered to ancient Israel as a crossroads for travel, trade, and migration.

Students trace why the ancient Israelites moved from city to city across the Middle East, including the journeys from Mesopotamia to Canaan, from Canaan to Egypt, and back again.

Judaism began in the ancient Middle East and is one of the world's oldest religions. Students learn where it started, who its key figures were, and what its core beliefs and practices are, including monotheism and the Torah.

Abraham and Moses are two of the most important figures in the story of ancient Israel. Abraham is considered the founding father of the Jewish people, while Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt and received the Ten Commandments.

Students study the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, as one of Judaism's most important sacred texts. This collection includes the Torah and shapes the laws, stories, and beliefs at the heart of ancient Israelite life.

Judaism teaches belief in one God, a moral code summed up in the Ten Commandments, and the idea that each person has real worth and is responsible for their own choices.

Students learn who the first three kings of Israel were and what each one did: Saul took the throne first, David made Jerusalem the capital, and Solomon built the first temple.

Students learn why the Assyrian and Babylonian empires forced Jewish populations out of their homeland, and how Persian rulers later allowed them to return.

Maps of ancient India show how rivers, mountains, and seasonal rains shaped where people settled and how they lived. Students read those maps to find the key landforms and climate patterns that made early Indian civilization possible.

The Ganges River runs across northern India and fed the farms, cities, and daily life of ancient Indian civilization. Students find it on a map and explain why people built their communities along its banks.

Students locate the Himalayan Mountains on a map and learn why this massive mountain range shaped where ancient Indian civilizations grew, who could reach them, and how they were protected from invasion.

Students find the Indian Ocean on a map and learn how its trade winds and sea routes connected ancient India to Africa, Arabia, and Southeast Asia.

Students locate the Indus River on a map and learn why ancient India's earliest cities were built along its banks, where the water and fertile soil made farming and settlement possible.

Monsoon winds are seasonal winds that brought heavy rains to ancient India each year. Students learn how these rains shaped where people settled, how farmers grew food, and why the timing of rainfall made such a difference to daily life.

Students find India on a map and learn why it is called a subcontinent. A mountain range seals it off from the rest of Asia to the north, and ocean water wraps around three sides, making it a vast landmass that stands almost like a continent on its own.

Students study two of the world's earliest cities, built along the Indus River around 2500 BC. They look at how those cities grew food, organized daily life, and left behind planned streets, drainage systems, and other lasting achievements.

Harappan cities were built from uniform, kiln-fired bricks. Students learn how this standardized construction material shaped the layout and durability of Indus Valley cities like Mohenjo-Daro.

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro were built on a grid of straight, intersecting streets, much like a modern city block layout. Students learn why that kind of planning was unusual for ancient cities and what it tells us about how those societies were organized.

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro built underground drains and sewers to carry wastewater away from homes and streets. Students learn why that engineering was a major achievement for cities nearly 4,000 years old.

When groups called Aryans moved into India thousands of years ago, they reshaped the region's religion, caste system, and spoken language. Students trace how those shifts changed daily life for the people already living there.

The caste system divided ancient Indian society into fixed groups based on birth. Students explain what each group could do, who they could marry, and what work they could hold, showing how caste shaped daily life from top to bottom.

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest religions, and it started in ancient India. Students learn where it came from, what its core beliefs are, and how those beliefs shaped daily life, worship, and society.

Hinduism grew out of the beliefs and rituals brought by the Aryan people who migrated into ancient India. Students learn who the Aryans were and how their traditions shaped one of the world's oldest religions.

Students read and discuss the Vedas, the oldest sacred writings of Hinduism. These ancient texts contain hymns, prayers, and rituals that shaped how Hindus understood the world, their gods, and how to live.

Hinduism teaches that people have duties to fulfill (dharma), that actions shape future lives (karma), that souls are reborn across many lifetimes (reincarnation), and that the soul's final goal is release from that cycle (moksha).

Buddhism began in ancient India with a teacher named Siddhartha Gautama. Students learn what he taught about suffering, the path to peace, and why those ideas spread across Asia and shaped how millions of people lived.

Siddhartha Gautama, later called the Buddha, founded Buddhism in ancient India. Students learn who he was, why his teachings spread, and what ideas sit at the center of the religion he started.

Buddhism's core teachings were collected in the Tripitaka, a set of writings that record the Buddha's rules for monks, his spoken teachings, and explanations of Buddhist ideas. Students learn what these texts contain and why they matter to Buddhist practice.

Students learn the core ideas at the heart of Buddhism: that life involves suffering, that suffering has a cause, and that following a set of principles (the Eightfold Path) can lead to peace and freedom from that suffering.

Ancient India gave the world the number system used in math class today. Students examine those advances alongside early medical practices and traditions like yoga that trace back thousands of years.

Students find and label key landforms on a map of ancient China, such as rivers, mountains, and deserts, and explain how those features shaped where people settled and how they lived.

Students find the Gobi Desert on a map and learn why this vast, dry expanse along China's northern edge shaped where ancient people settled and how far trade could reach.

Students find the Himalayan Mountains on a map and learn how this massive range formed a natural wall along China's southwestern edge, blocking movement between China and the rest of Asia.

Students find the Pacific Ocean on a map and learn how this vast body of water shaped trade, travel, and contact with the outside world for ancient Chinese civilization.

Students find the Plateau of Tibet on a map and learn why its high altitude made it one of the most remote and hard-to-cross regions in the ancient world.

Students find the Yangtze River on a map of ancient China. It runs through the heart of the country from west to east and was one of the main waterways ancient Chinese people used for farming, trade, and travel.

Students find the Yellow River on a map and learn why ancient Chinese civilization grew up around it. Frequent flooding made the surrounding land fertile, which is why this river is often called the birthplace of Chinese culture.

Early Chinese civilization began along the Yellow River, where reliable water and farmland allowed the first ruling dynasties to form. Students explain how geography shaped where and how ancient China's first organized societies took root.

China's mountains, deserts, and rivers made it hard for rulers to control distant regions and kept outside contact limited. Students look at how those physical barriers shaped the way ancient China was governed and why it stayed largely cut off from other civilizations.

The Mandate of Heaven was the idea that Chinese rulers held power only as long as they governed well. Students learn where this idea came from and how Legalism, a strict rule-based system, developed to hold a large and divided empire together.

Qin Shi Huangdi united China's warring regions into one empire around 221 BC. Students explain what that meant in practice: a shared writing system, new roads and canals, and the beginning of the Great Wall.

Confucius lived during a time of war and social disorder in ancient China. His teachings called for respect within families, clear roles in society, and loyalty to leaders as a way to restore peace and stability.

The Han Dynasty ruled for about 400 years, guided by Confucian ideas about order, loyalty, and good government. Students learn what made that rule work and what the Han invented, from paper and silk to the magnetic compass.

The Silk Road was a network of trade routes linking China to Eurasia. Students examine what merchants carried along those routes and how Buddhism traveled into China alongside the goods.

Students locate and label key places on a map of ancient Greece, including cities, islands, seas, and mountain ranges that shaped where Greeks settled and how they lived.

Students locate the Aegean Sea on a map and explain how this body of water shaped Greek trade, travel, and settlement between the Greek mainland and western Turkey.

Asia Minor is the large peninsula of land (modern-day Turkey) that sits across the Aegean Sea from mainland Greece. Students identify it on a map and learn how Greek city-states spread there during the ancient period.

Students locate Athens on a map of ancient Greece and learn why its position near the sea made it a center of trade, culture, and political power.

Students find Macedonia on a map and learn how this kingdom in northern Greece shaped the ancient world, especially under Alexander the Great.

Students find the Mediterranean Sea on a map and learn how this body of water connected ancient Greece to trading partners, colonies, and rivals across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

The Peloponnesian peninsula is the large landmass hanging off the southern tip of Greece, connected to the mainland by a narrow strip of land. Students learn to find and label it on a map.

Students locate Sparta on a map of ancient Greece and learn why its inland position on the Peloponnese peninsula shaped it into a military-focused city-state rather than a trading power.

Students study how Greece's mountains and coastline shaped daily life: why communities stayed separate and became city-states, how merchants built trade routes by sea, and why Greeks settled new colonies across the Mediterranean.

A polis was the city-state where ancient Greeks lived, voted, and followed shared laws. Students examine what citizenship meant in that world and how ordinary people took part in governing their community.

Students compare Athens and Sparta as two very different kinds of cities. Athens valued debate, voting, and education. Sparta trained soldiers from childhood and prized military strength above all else.

Athens and Sparta educated boys in opposite ways. Athens focused on reading, debate, and the arts; Sparta put boys through years of military training and physical hardship starting around age seven.

Athens and Sparta sat in very different parts of Greece. Athens faced the sea and used trade to grow wealthy. Sparta was landlocked in a mountain valley and built its power through military strength instead.

Athens and Sparta both relied on enslaved people to do farm work, household labor, and other daily tasks. In Sparta, enslaved people called helots vastly outnumbered free citizens, which shaped how Spartan society was organized and how tightly it controlled its population.

In Athens, women had few legal rights and stayed mostly at home. In Sparta, women owned property, exercised publicly, and had far more freedom than women anywhere else in Greece.

Athens let all male citizens vote directly on laws, while Sparta was ruled by a small group of men at the top. Students compare how each city-state decided who held power and how decisions got made.

Students learn why Persia attacked Greece and what happened as a result. The focus is on how Athens and Sparta set aside their rivalry to fight together, and how those wars shaped Greek power and politics for generations.

Students examine why Athens and Sparta went to war with each other, and what the fighting cost both cities. The conflict drained both sides and left Greece weaker than before.

Greek gods looked and acted like humans. Students learn how those gods shaped daily life in ancient Greece and how the Olympic Games began as a way to honor Zeus.

Students learn what Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle actually believed and how their ideas changed the way ancient Greeks thought about education, government, and how to live a good life.

Students learn why the Greeks built landmarks like the Parthenon the way they did, from the columns holding up temples to the hilltop layout of the Acropolis, and what those choices tell us about Greek religion and civic life.

Macedonia conquered the scattered Greek city-states and united them under one ruler. Students study how Alexander the Great then spread Greek language, art, and ideas across three continents, reshaping the cultures he encountered.

Maps of ancient Rome show the city on the Tiber River, the Italian peninsula, and the territories Rome controlled at its height. Students read those maps and name the key places.

Constantinople was the eastern capital of the Roman Empire, located where Europe meets Asia on a narrow strip of land between two seas. Students learn to find it on a map and explain why its location made it one of the ancient world's most powerful cities.

Students locate the Italian Alps on a map and learn how this mountain range formed a natural northern barrier that shaped where Rome could grow and who could threaten it.

Students learn where Italy sits on a map, including its boot-shaped peninsula, surrounding seas, and how that location shaped Rome's rise as a power in the ancient world.

Students learn where the Mediterranean Sea sits on a map and why it mattered to Rome. It was the main highway for Roman trade, military movement, and communication across three continents.

Students locate Rome on a map and learn why the city sat at the center of one of the largest empires in history. Its position on the Italian peninsula, near the Tiber River, shaped how Rome grew and how it ruled.

Students learn where the Tiber River sits on a map of ancient Rome and why Romans built their city along its banks.

Rome sat at the center of the Mediterranean world. Students study how that location gave Rome access to trade routes, farmland, and sea travel that helped it grow into a powerful empire.

Rome had a strict social ladder. Patricians held political power at the top, plebeians made up the working majority in the middle, and enslaved people had no rights and did the hardest labor that kept Roman society running.

Students learn how the Roman Republic was governed: who held power, how leaders were chosen, and what rules kept any one person from taking control.

Roman Republic government was split into three branches: two elected consuls led the executive branch, the Senate handled laws and finances, and assemblies gave citizens a voice. Students learn how these parts checked each other's power.

The Roman Republic split power across different groups so no single person or branch could take full control. Students learn how consuls, the Senate, and assemblies each had the ability to limit what the others could do.

Romans were expected to vote, serve in the military, pay taxes, and take part in public life. This standard looks at how citizens showed up for their republic, and what participation actually meant in ancient Rome.

Roman citizens voted for leaders to speak and make decisions on their behalf. That system, where elected officials governed in the name of the people, is what made Rome a representative democracy.

Rome's earliest written legal code, the Twelve Tables, spelled out rules that applied to every citizen, not just the powerful. Students learn how publishing those laws in public changed who could demand fair treatment.

Julius Caesar seized sole control of Rome, ending centuries of republican rule. Students examine how he used military victories, political alliances, and popular support to gain power, and why his assassination in 44 BC sparked a civil war that reshaped Rome.

Students learn how Julius Caesar built power through military command, leading armies across Gaul and using battlefield victories to gain political influence back in Rome.

Caesar built his power by winning over ordinary Romans through public works, debt relief, and land reform, not just through the backing of wealthy elites.

Caesar was named dictator for life in 44 BC, meaning he held permanent power over Rome's government with no election, no term limit, and no Senate vote that could remove him.

Students learn why a group of Roman senators killed Julius Caesar in 44 BC and how his death ended the Roman Republic and set off a civil war.

Students study how Augustus Caesar ended a century of civil war and became Rome's first emperor. They look at how Rome grew wealthier, expanded its borders, and held together under the long peace he established.

Roman engineers built roads, aqueducts, and public buildings that changed how people traveled, got clean water, and gathered in cities. Students explain how those inventions shaped everyday life across the empire.

Roman aqueducts were stone channels that carried fresh water from distant rivers and springs into cities. They made public baths, fountains, and clean drinking water possible for millions of people across the empire.

Roman engineers used the arch to build structures that could hold enormous weight, from bridges and aqueducts to stadiums. This single design shaped how Romans traveled, got water, and gathered in public spaces.

Roman engineers built bridges that let armies, traders, and citizens cross rivers quickly, connecting distant parts of the empire and keeping goods and people moving across a vast road network.

Roman engineers built large curved ceilings called domes to cover wide open spaces without interior columns. This design, seen in buildings like the Pantheon, let architects create grand public spaces and later influenced churches and government buildings worldwide.

Roman roads connected cities, towns, and military bases across the empire, letting soldiers march, merchants trade, and messages travel quickly. Students examine how this network shaped how people moved and how Rome kept control over a vast territory.

Roman engineers built sewers, aqueducts, and public baths that moved clean water into cities and waste out. Students examine how that infrastructure shaped where people lived, how healthy they stayed, and how Roman cities grew.

The Colosseum was a massive outdoor arena in Rome where tens of thousands of people gathered to watch gladiator fights and public spectacles. Students examine how it shaped Roman social life and what its design reveals about Roman engineering.

Roman gods looked and acted like humans, with personalities, flaws, and rivalries. Students explain how Romans worshipped these gods daily, believing the gods controlled everything from harvests to war to family life.

Christianity began in the Roman Empire around 2,000 years ago, rooted in the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Students learn who early Christians were, what they believed, and how the religion spread across the ancient world.

Jesus is considered the founder of Christianity. Paul was a key early leader who spread Christian teachings across the Roman world after Jesus's death.

The Bible is Christianity's holy book. Students learn that it contains two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament, and that Christians treat it as a guide for belief and daily life.

Students learn the core beliefs that define Christianity: that there is one God, that people can be forgiven for wrongdoing, that life continues after death, and that followers believe Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Jews were forced out of their homeland by the Roman Empire after a series of revolts, scattering Jewish communities across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Students study why Rome expelled them and how that displacement shaped Jewish history.

Rome eventually split into two halves. Students learn why the empire became too large to govern as one, and why the emperor Constantine built a new capital city in the east, in what is now Turkey.

Students examine why the Western Roman Empire collapsed, looking at how its vast size made it hard to govern, how political corruption and money problems weakened it from within, and how outside attacks finished it off. The Eastern half survived and became the Byzantine Empire.