Kyle’s remarkable creative timeline of the Stone Age. Thanks, Kyle!
“A test? But I’ve only been at high school for 3 weeks! What is that Ms Green thinking?”
Hmm, I know. That’s why you can be sure that this little test will be extremely straightforward. It will be a gentle baptism, not a baptism of fire. You will discover that tests are a cinch if you follow the cardinal rules. There are three of them.
1. Revise. “Well, obviously!” I hear my star 7X student say.
2. Read the question and answer it. “Oh my goodness, does she think we need to be told that?” says my hypothetical student, with asperity.
3. Answer the question comprehensively in order to gain all the marks allotted. “Hey, that might be useful advice. About time.”
Sorry for stating the obvious, 7X. But believe me, every year I mention these cardinal rules when I return the test to my students. Every year at least eight students in my class really needed to hear them before the test, not after. You see, I’m teaching you to sit tests as well as make remarkably thoughtful comments about history; after all, you don’t need much teaching in order to do that.
Now, the topics. I always give students ALL the topics well before the test, so that they can ace it. Our test won’t be until Tuesday 2 March. In the intervening week or so, you can make sure that all these topics are firmly woven into your brain cells. Here they are:
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BC, AD, BCE, CE, BP (Sounds like a petrol company! Don’t write that in the test though.)
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The Stone Age (use the quiz on this blog to help you revise – you can go to this quiz by clicking HERE)
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The life and death of the Neanderthals; comparisons between them and homo sapiens (us)
Summary: The Neanderthals appeared about 300,000 years ago and died out about 35,000 years ago. Their brains were larger than ours; they were strong and well-adapted to the ice ages; they made tools and they were effective hunters. Perhaps most interesting of all, they buried their dead and looked after the old and infirm. YET they did not survive.
Modern humans, called homo sapiens (wise or knowing man [person]) developed more sophisticated tools than the Neanderthals did. They were the first to create art works as far as we know. They are generally believed to have developed more complex language skills than Neanderthals. They are the only hominid to farm and learn to write, but they did not begin to do so until long after the Neanderthals had become extinct. For most of their history (that’s our prehistory!) they were hunter-gatherers. That period and lifestyle lasted for almost 2 million years.
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The Old Stone Age (hunting and gathering) and the New Stone Age (farming and herding), as summarised below:
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The hunter-gatherer lifestyle which dominated human life from 2 million years ago until about 10.000 years ago, and continued in many parts of the world for much longer
Summary: People moved from place to place. In other words, they were nomads, who followed the migrating herds of wild animals and moved around to find wild plants. They hunted wild animals for meat and gathered wild foods such as berries, nuts, fruits, vegetables and eggs, using stone tools and weapons. Their lives would have been harsh and difficult at times. They had to find food during the Ice Ages, suffer fractures and injuries caused by hunting and deal with constant uncertainties about food, especially in the less fertile areas.
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The farming and herding lifestyle that began to develop in the New Stone Age; advantages and disadvantages of each kind of lifestyle
Summary: Farming and herding began about 10,000 years ago in the Middle East and spread inexorably from there to Europe. It also began independently in Asia and the Americas a little later. It changed human societies and lifestyles in many ways. For instance, people could stay in one place and gradually build larger settlements. People’s jobs began to vary more within more complex societies, with specialists such as builders, potters and leaders, etc. People began to have more possessions, which needed to be protected from theft and conquest. Since the land was being farmed intensively, it could support a denser population. In short, this change to farming and herding, many anthropologists believe, was the basis for more structured and more hierarchical societies.
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Primary and secondary sources in history **** (not done in class yet – DON’T PANIC!)
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Important events in the Stone Age as shown by your Stone Age timeline (you don’t need to look up any more)
Sarah’s stupendous walk through the Stone Age. Well done, Sarah!
Revise: “Well, obviously!”
Read the question and answer it: “Oh my goodness, does she think we need to be told that?”
Answer the question comprehensively in order to gain all the marks allotted: “Hey, that might be useful advice. About time.”
Yay, I’m a STAR STUDENT!
it’s good to know there is an easy way to be a star student!
sort of.
Sarahs timeline is AMAZING! its like a rainbow going up the stairs, it looks so cool!!!
are we doing Night of the Notables this year? I’ve heard alot about it and it looks really fun and i’m looking forward to it.
Dear Rachel,
We are indeed doing the Night of Notables this year. You can look back at a few past photos on this blog when you get the chance. There are also a few shots from last year on our knitters’ blog. It will be in October and you’ll do it with your Geography teacher, not with me, I’m afraid. But I’ll be around to answer questions and take photos, etc.
That was a lovely message you left about Sarah’s timeline. It is a work of art.
Ms Green.
Hi Ms Green,
I got a notice today that says I am going to represent BHHS in the Yr 7 Volleyball team. Yeah! But bad part is it is all day on Thursday 4th march, which means I will miss your test. Can you please email me what I need to do. There are some others from my class that are on the team too.
From Kyle
I’ve emailed you, Kyle – don’t worry about the test. You and your other volleyball comrades can do the test on Wednesday 10 March. Thanks for letting me know.
I reckon we are going to be spammed with tests but I hope that this one is going to be easy. Is primary originals like autobiographies and secondary is magazines and stuff like that
Hi, Phillip!
An autobiography would be a primary source if it was written in the time you were studying and if the person was someone whose ideas you were researching specifically.
Actually a magazine could be a primary source too if it came from the time you were researching. For instance, a “Women’s Weekly” magazine from the 50s in Australia could give you insight into that period if that was the period you were studying. In that case it would be a primary source.
What matters is the time. Anything written or produced at the time of the history you are researching is a primary source. For instance, a history textbook written during the time of the Third Reich in Germany (Hitler’s regime) might give you insight into the ideas of the Nazis; if you were using it for that purpose it would be a primary source. But if you were using it to find out what it said about the 17th century, it would be a secondary source.
The secondary source is something written later, well after the event, by someone not directly involved. For instance, it would be possible for Gough Whitlam to write about his dismissal now (35 years ago) and it would still be a primary source, because he was there at the time. A modern historian, however, who wrote a book about the event, would really have produced a secondary source. Any documents he or she quoted, however, that came from that time, would be primary sources.
Sorry, overly detailed answer really. Hope you have a great camp!
Kind regards,
Ms Green
PS You were such a good sport about that little story I told in class the other day with you as the main character. Thanks for that.
Hello Mrs Green!
umm… yeah;
For the Blog post ‘A test that none of you will find the slightest bit daunting,’ how it says ‘The Stone Age (use the quiz on this blog to help you revise – you can go to this quiz by clicking HERE),’ does it mean the key events, the definition or maybe something else? Because I’ve been stuck on things like that recently… and… yeah… I’d love a reply from our best teacher…
Eugene
Hi ppl!
Hi, Eugene,
That’s very kind of you. I hope you had a great time on camp, by the way. Now don’t worry about knowing every small detail for the test. It’s more of an overview, really. The quiz could give you some background knowledge but you don’t need to learn every detail. Honestly, the test is really straightforward. It would be worthwhile for you to know that farming only began about 10000 years ago and that before that all humans lived by hunting and gathering. You also need to know the general terms, such as archaeology and AD, etc. But you mostly have to fill in the word, not supply the definition, so that makes it easier. Believe me, you’ll find it pretty easy. Read what I wrote about each of the topics in the post above; that will help you. And don’t worry!
Kind regards,
Ms Green.
ooh… thank you (although I did half the test yesterday)
People, I’m going to use these words till the end of this month:
yesteryear (last year)
eleventy, twelventy etc (110, 120 etc)
benow (Before now-BP!)
tomorroyear (next year)
chocolate fudge cake
and a few more things…
See you tomorroweek Ms Green
Eugene – that guy who uses weird words