1. click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Interactive Skills
for Students
How to Identify
Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation

2. click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Why Learn This Skill?
 Cause-and-effect relationships are important in social studies.
 A cause is an action or situation that produces an event.
 An effect is what happens as a result of a cause.

3. click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Learn It!
To identify cause-and-effect relationships, follow these steps:
 Identify two or more events or developments.
 Decide whether one event caused the other. Look for clue words such as because, led to, brought about, so that, after that, produced, as a result of, or since.
 Identify the outcomes of events. Some effects have more than one cause, and some causes lead to more than one effect.

4. Apply It! Read the excerpt. How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Read the excerpt.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

5. Apply It! Now, identify two or more events or developments.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Now, identify two or more events or developments.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States went through an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

6. Apply It! Now, identify two or more events or developments.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Now, identify two or more events or developments.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

7. Apply It! Now, identify two or more events or developments.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Now, identify two or more events or developments.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The little money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

8. Apply It! Now, identify two or more events or developments.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Now, identify two or more events or developments.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States went through a depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The little money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

9. This is an event, but we are not told what caused it.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States went through an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.
This is an event, but we are not told what caused it.

10. This event could be a result of the depression.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.
This event could be a result of the depression.

11. How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.
This event was not caused by the depression, but it did have an effect.

12. How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.
This phrase is a clue that there is a relationship between these events.

13. Apply It! Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, decide whether one event caused the other.
This effect was a result of the depression, the government’s lack of money, and the debts owed by the government.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.

14. This was an outcome of the events described.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Finally, identify the outcomes of the events.
New Government Faces Economic Challenges
After the American Revolution, the United States experienced an economic depression. A depression is a period of time when economic activity slows down.
The government did not have much money. The small amount of money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries. This resulted in a serious shortage of money in the United States.
Soon, people began to call for a new plan of government that could address challenges faced by the young nation.
This was an outcome of the events described.

15. Apply It! Next, summarize what you learned.
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
Next, summarize what you learned.
The United States experienced an economic depression.
The government did not have much money.
The little money the government had went to pay debts to foreign countries.
The United States experienced a serious shortage of money.
People began to call for a new plan of government to address these economic challenges.

16. click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Apply It!
What is Cause and Effect?
A cause is an action or situation that produces an event. An effect is what happens as a result of a cause.
The ability to identify cause-and-effect relationships will help me in my social studies class as well as my other classes.

17. click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
How to Identify Cause and Effect
click your mouse or hit enter to advance animation
Remember
 A cause is an action or situation that produces an event.
 An effect is an event that is caused by something.
 The ability to identify cause-and-effect relationships will help you in all your studies.