3FN7 – Social Studies – Human-Environment Interaction

How do FreeNode lessons work?

FreeNodes are instructor-led schooling lessons with a unique approach, granting you the freedom to independently teach using a personalized lesson plan. This autonomy enables you to tailor your lessons to suit students’ individual needs, learning styles, and interests.

To use a FreeNode, read the provided class outline & follow the formatting provided for each class. Make sure to touch on the Theocratic Connection in each class. Follow the outline closely so it is aligned with our main at-home curriculum.

How Do I Use the FreeNode?

Read this lesson plan before class to familiarize yourself with the ideas and concepts you’ll be teaching the students. You may print this page out if you need to use it as a reference point during live classes.

This lesson is a guide, but feel free to expand on the content or decrease/increase what you teach depending on the learning levels of the students in your class or the amount of time you have to cover the material.

Can I show videos in FN classes?

Yes, feel free to include additional material to supplement the class lesson material. Videos, Physical Objects, Games, Activities, etc. are okay to share in live classes.

Videos should have no advertisements or logos and should be viewed by you before showing them to the students to ensure no offensive or questionable content is included.

The video should make up only 1-3 minutes of the live class and should not take the place of instructor-led instruction. Videos should be supplementary only.

How do bookmarks work?

Bookmarks help you keep track of lessons you’re going to teach in future live classes. The bookmarks you see are for all your bookmarked lessons across all grades.

You can bookmark a lesson by visiting the lesson you want to bookmark and clicking the “bookmark” button in the bookmark section.

You can remove a single bookmark by visiting a lesson you’ve bookmarked and clicking the “bookmark” button again to unbookmark it.

You can clear all of your bookmarks by clicking the “clear all bookmarks” button. Be careful, this will erase all of your bookmarks.

Class Lesson Plan

Objectives:

Students will learn what it means to modify an environment, learn how humans adapt to their environment, explore how human-environment interaction shapes the way people live.

Materials:

Whiteboard
Visual aids (pictures of adaptations like clothing, housing, etc., and modifications like dams, farms, etc.)
Interactive online resources such as videos and games (optional)

Introduction (2 minutes):

Begin by asking students if they’ve ever had to adapt to something in their surroundings (e.g., wearing different clothes in the summer or winter). Introduce the concept of human-environment interaction, which shows how people interact with the land they live on.

Theocratic Connections:

Reference Matthew 10:10, where Jesus talks about sandals, an example of people adapting to their environment in biblical times. Explain that even Jesus observed how people modified their actions to make life easier in their environment.

Activity 1 – Adapting to the Environment (10 minutes):

Explain that people adapt to their environment by changing how they live to make it easier. Give examples:

Food: People in cold climates eat thick stews, while those in hot climates eat fresh fruit.
Clothing: People in hot climates wear loose clothing, while those in cold climates wear layers.
Housing: In cold climates, houses are built to keep warm air inside, while in hot climates, houses are built to let warm air escape.

Optional: Have students describe ways they’ve adapted to their environment (e.g., wearing certain clothes or eating certain foods).

Activity 2 – Modifying the Environment (10 minutes):

Explain that people also modify their environment to make it easier to live. Give examples:

Farmers modify the land by cutting down trees to create farms.
People build dams to control water and create electricity.
In areas prone to wildfires, people clear dry trees to protect their homes.

Optional: Show pictures of modifications like farms, dams, or cleared land. Ask students how people in their community may have modified the environment.

Activity 3 – Human Response to Natural Hazards (5 minutes):

Introduce natural hazards like earthquakes, floods, and wildfires. Discuss how people adapt by building strong, earthquake-proof houses and modify their surroundings by clearing trees to prevent wildfires from spreading.

Optional: Have students brainstorm ways people could adapt or modify their environment in response to hazards.

Conclusion (3 minutes):

Recap the two ways humans interact with the environment: adapting and modifying. Ask students to think about how both adaptations and modifications are necessary for survival and how they can have positive or negative effects on the environment.

Assessment:

Evaluate students through class participation, their ability to explain how people adapt and modify their environments, and their examples of human-environment interaction.