1. Course: 7th grade Medieval World Social Studies
Survivor: Adapting to Geographical Challenges – A Historical Analysis Day 2
California State Content Standard:
7.2 – Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
7.2:1 – Identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabic peninsula, its relationship to surrounding bodies of land and water, and nomadic and sedentary ways of life.
Objective:
Students will identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabian Peninsula and its relationship to surrounding lands.
Students will critically analyze the geographic terrain to determine how to adapt and survive in the terrain with regards to
shelter, food/water, safety, & economics.
Students will practice active listening and synthesis of classmates ideas.
Materials: Geography visuals of Arabian Peninsula (Alavosus, 2005). Powerpoint slides with questions. Readings from secondary and primary sources about the Arabian Peninsula’s environment.   
References
Alavosus, L. (ed.). (2005). History alive: The medieval world and beyond. Palo Alto, Ca: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute,
Hitti, P. K.. (1996). The Arabs: A short history. Washington D.C., USA: Regnery Publishing Inc.
Langewiesche, W. (1996). The physics of blown sand. Sahara unveiled, New York, NY: William Morrow & Co,
The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Previous lesson include, Synthesizing a map of the trade routes, physical, and geographical features of the Arabian Peninsula using three sources: topographical map, map of the silk roads, and weather.com.
Future lessons include analyzing the origins of the Islam and its relationship to the environment.

2. Survivor: Adapting to Geographical Challenges – A Historical Analysis
WARM-UP You have 3 minutes to describe or draw the geography and climate of St. Mary’s College?
Bonus Question What would you have to do to adapt to this environment in order to survive?
 10 Minutes of 50 Minute Class
Describe or draw the geography and climate of St. Mary’s College?
Students write/draw response
Discuss Answers via Think-Pair Share
Additional discussion question:
What would one have to do to adapt to this environment to survive?
Socratic inquiry – brainstorm ideas

3. The Geography of Arabian Peninsula
5 Minutes
Review geography map of Arabian Peninsula
Make observations about physical features and climate in K-W-L style.
What would it take to survive here?
READ: “Islam began in Arabia, a peninsula of southwest Asia between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. The Arabian Peninsula is part of the region known as the Middle East.[For centuries, large amounts of trade passed through the region caring Chinese silks, Indian spices, African gold and ivory, and glass and metals from Europe to surrounding areas] Today the peninsula incudes the countries of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates [and has a valuable world good – oil],” (Alavosus, L., ed., 2005, p. 72). Surrounded by water on three sides, the Arabian Peninsula has the Red Sea to the west, the Persian Gulf to the East, and the Indian Ocean to the South. Known as al-Jazeera or “the island” by many Arabs, the Arabian Peninsula is home to many different environments from vast dry deserts to small fertile oasis, with isolated mountains, and long fertile coastal plans.
GROUPS: work together to determine what one would have to do to adapt to certain environments to survive in the Arabian Peninsula in and around the year 600 C.E.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

4. SURVIVOR – 600 C.E. You Need – Water & Food for your herds & Protection from the elements
THE DESERT (10 Min Max)
Almost 75% of the Arabian Peninsula is covered by desert. These seas of desert stretch for miles include flat plains and raised plateaus. Hot and dry, the Arabian desert is very harsh with temperatures during the day rising above 120 degrees in comparison to the Bay Area which has highs in the upper 90’s. Furthermore, annual rainfall doesn’t surpass 3 to 4 inches with drought lasting for years. When it does rain in the desert, the water comes quickly in violent storms that cause flash floods that do more damage than good. More common are sand storms that blow blinding clouds of sand about and can cause sand dunes up to 800 feet high. See those mountains in the distance, they are in fact mountains of sand. These extreme elements cause clumps of grass and low shrubs to grow in small areas. In order to survive in this environment your group needs to discuss how to get water and food for your herds and cloth yourself for protection from the harsh environment.
“They said the sands are fickle. Dunes may drift for decades in one direction, or not drift at all, then suddenly turn and consume you. Consumption by the sand is like other forms of terminal illness: it starts so gently that at first you don't worry. One day the grains begin to accumulate against your walls. You've seen the grains before, and naturally assume that a change in the wind will carry them away. But this time the wind does not change, and the illness persists. Over weeks or longer, the sand grows. You fight back with a shovel, and manage to keep your walls clear. Fighting back feels good and gives you something to do. But the grains never let up, and one morning while shoveling you realize that the dunes have moved closer. You enlist your sons and brothers. But eventually the land around your house swells with sand, and you begin standing on sand to shovel sand. Finally no amount of digging will clear your walls. The dunes tower above you, and send sand sheets cascading down their advancing slip faces. You have to gather your belongings and flee.” (Langewiesche, 1996).
Select visual based on key observations made by class. Should have time to complete 2.
Each survivor environment includes:
Visual: 1) Harsh Desert of Arabian Peninsula, 2) Oases haven, 3) Jabal Shammar Mt. Range, 4) Coastal Plan.
Oral Reading: Description of environment and potential challenges for survival. If possible, reading from primary source describing environment.
Time for Brainstorm: Use Jeopardy music while groups think of ways to survive.
Think-Pair-Share & Active Listening Drill
Active Listening Drill – three students used.
Person A: provides reason with explanation on why it would work.
Person B: Listens and responds with “what you’re saying is…” (paraphrases A’s argument using different words) A either affirms or corrects.
Person C: Listens to B and responds with “So you mean…” (Explains why B’s answer is important) B either affirms or corrects.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

5. How Arabian’s survived in the dessert.
Surviving in the Dessert (5 Min)
Many Arabians lived in towns and villages, but others were nomads who moved around the desert looking for food and water for their herds. These nomads like the Bedouins, migrated throughout the desert raising sheep, goats, and camels. Upon finding an area with water and grazing, these nomads would set up tents until all the food was gone. Using camels, for transportations the Bedouins found an animal that had adapted to survive in the desert. The camel –known as “the ship of the desert” could survive for days without water, eat almost anything, and be able to carry heavy loads for long distance. Surviving off their herds and transporting trade goods, these nomads made loose-fitting long gowns and cotton headdresses to protect against dust, heat, and flies. Additionally, these nomads got their food and had their needs meet by the herds, which provided milk to drink, yogurt, cheese, and occasionally meat. The animals also provided wool and hair for clothing, blanks, and leather hides for tents. These goods could then be traded for other items. Many nomads traveled in groups called caravans which offered protection as the nomads moved through out the desert trying to survive. (Alavosus, L., ed., 2005, p 77).
it is necessary to throw the spotlight first upon the original Arab, the Bedouin.
The Bedouin is no gypsy roaming aimlessly for the sake of roaming. He represents the best adaptation of human life to desert conditions. Wherever grass grows, there he goes seeking pasture. Nomadism is as much a scientific mode of living in the Nufud as industrialism is in Detroit or Manchester. It is a reasonable and stoic adjustment to an unfriendly environment. For the surface of Arabia is almost completely desert with only a narrow strip of habitable land round the periphery. The Arabians called their habitat an island, and an island it is, surrounded by water on three sides and by sand on the fourth.
Despite its size-it is the largest peninsula in the world-its total population is estimated at only seven to eight millions. Geologists tell us that the land once formed the natural continuation of the Sahara (now separated from it by the rift of the Nile Valley and the great chasm of the Red Sea) and of the sandy belt which traverses Asia through central Persia and the Gobi Desert. It is one of the driest and hottest countries in the whole world. True, the area is sandwiched between seas on the east and west, but these bodies of water are too narrow to break the climatic continuity of the Africo-Asian rainless continental masses. The ocean on the south does bring rains, to be sure, but the monsoons (an Arabic word, incidentally) which seasonably lash the land leave very little moisture for the interior. It is easy to understand why the bracing and delightful east wind has always provided a favorite theme for Arabian poets.
The Bedouin still lives, as his forebears did, in tents of goats' or camels' hair ("houses of hair"), and grazes his sheep and goats on the same ancient pastures. Sheep-and-camel- raising, and to a lesser degree horse-breeding, hunting and raiding, are his regular occupations, and are to his mind the only occupations worthy of a man. It is his conviction that agriculture-as well as all varieties of trade and craft-are beneath his dignity. And indeed there is not much tillable land. There is little wheat. Bread, to the Arabian, is a luxury. There are a few trees, the date-palm, the shrub from which comes the famous coffee of South Arabia (not introduced until the fourteenth century), grape vines, and in the oases, numerous fruits as well as almonds, sugar cane and watermelons. The frankincense tree, important in the early commercial life of South Arabia, still flourishes.
It is a harsh and forbidding land, the air dry, the soil salty. There is not a single river of significance which flows perennially and reaches the sea. None of its streams is navigable. In place of a system of rivers it has a network of wadies which carry away such floods as occur. These wadies serve another purpose: they determine the routes for the caravans and the holy pilgrimage. Since the rise of Islam the pilgrimage has formed the principal link between Arabia and the outer world. (Hitti, 1996)
Select visual based on key observations made by class. Should have time to complete 2.
Each survivor environment includes:
Visual: 1) Harsh Desert of Arabian Peninsula, 2) Oases haven, 3) Jabal Shammar Mt. Range, 4) Coastal Plan.
Oral Reading: Description of environment and potential challenges for survival. If possible, reading from primary source describing environment.
Time for Brainstorm: Use Jeopardy music while groups think of ways to survive.
Think-Pair-Share & Active Listening Drill
Active Listening Drill – three students used.
Person A: provides reason with explanation on why it would work.
Person B: Listens and responds with “what you’re saying is…” (paraphrases A’s argument using different words) A either affirms or corrects.
Person C: Listens to B and responds with “So you mean…” (Explains why B’s answer is important) B either affirms or corrects.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

6. SURVIVOR – 600 C.E. You Need – more food for your community than the oasis can naturally provide.
The Oasis (10 Min)
“In the vast desert where the “sands are fickle. Dunes may drift for decades in one direction, or not drift at all, then suddenly turn and consume you” (Langswiesche, 1996) there exists small oases where, plants, trees, shade, and fresh water can be found. Where ever water is trapped underground, there is the possibility of it coming to the service to create an Oasis. Around such havens, some nomads would settle to create towns and villages where clans or families would join together with tribes of people to control this precious resource. Ranging from a few acres to large areas of lands, oases’ helped people attempting to survive in the desert produce enough food to support their tribes. In order to survive in this environment your group will need to discuss how you can use the oasis to create more food than the oasis can provide naturally.
Select visual based on key observations made by class. Should have time to complete 2.
Each survivor environment includes:
Visual: 1) Harsh Desert of Arabian Peninsula, 2) Oases haven, 3) Jabal Shammar Mt. Range, 4) Coastal Plan.
Oral Reading: Description of environment and potential challenges for survival. If possible, reading from primary source describing environment.
Time for Brainstorm: Use Jeopardy music while groups think of ways to survive.
Think-Pair-Share & Active Listening Drill
Active Listening Drill – three students used.
Person A: provides reason with explanation on why it would work.
Person B: Listens and responds with “what you’re saying is…” (paraphrases A’s argument using different words) A either affirms or corrects.
Person C: Listens to B and responds with “So you mean…” (Explains why B’s answer is important) B either affirms or corrects.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

7. How Arabian’s survived with the Oasis.
Surviving with the Oasis (5 Min)
Enkidu said to Gilgamesh, the friend on whose account he had left the wilderness, 'Once I ran for you, for the water of life, and I now have nothing:' (The Epic of Gilgamesh, p 14). The ancient epic story, Gilgamesh, tells the tale of two friends who wandered the desert in search of immortality throughout the Arabian Peninsula in ancient times before settling to build civilizaiton. These wanderings were common for nomads, but some nomads in search of the water of life found that oasis provide other sources of life: food. This realization caused some nomads to give up wandering in search of food and water for their herds, and settle in oasis to adapt to the lands in order to survive. Deep wells were dug for more water and irrigation was used to move the water out into the fertile dessert to help grow food. The expansion of oases enabled Arabian’s to grow fruits like dates and peaches, and in some areas even grain for bread. Also, water could be mixed with dried plant life and mud to create mud bricks to build more stable dwellings. As communities grew, the members realized the importance of the oasis as a source of water, food, and wealth which could be traded to other nomads for items that oasis could not produce.
Select visual based on key observations made by class. Should have time to complete 2.
Each survivor environment includes:
Visual: 1) Harsh Desert of Arabian Peninsula, 2) Oases haven, 3) Jabal Shammar Mt. Range, 4) Coastal Plan.
Oral Reading: Description of environment and potential challenges for survival. If possible, reading from primary source describing environment.
Time for Brainstorm: Use Jeopardy music while groups think of ways to survive.
Think-Pair-Share & Active Listening Drill
Active Listening Drill – three students used.
Person A: provides reason with explanation on why it would work.
Person B: Listens and responds with “what you’re saying is…” (paraphrases A’s argument using different words) A either affirms or corrects.
Person C: Listens to B and responds with “So you mean…” (Explains why B’s answer is important) B either affirms or corrects.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

8. Final Thoughts Your Ticket Out of Here
Short Answer:
How would you describe the geography of the Arabian Peninsula?
How do the physical features and climate of the Arabian Peninsula affect people’s ability to adapt to the environment?
Why do you think the Arabian people developed a nomadic or wandering way of life?
5 Mins.

9. Course: 7th grade Medieval World Social Studies
Survivor: Adapting to Geographical Challenges – A Historical Analysis Day 3
California State Content Standard:
7.2 – Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
7.2:1 – Identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabic peninsula, its relationship to surrounding bodies of land and water, and nomadic and sedentary ways of life.
Objective:
Students will identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabian Peninsula and its relationship to surrounding lands.
Students will critically analyze the geographic terrain to determine how to adapt and survive in the terrain with regards to
shelter, food/water, safety, & economics.
Students will practice active listening and synthesis of classmates ideas.
Materials: Geography visuals of Arabian Peninsula (Alavosus, 2005). Powerpoint slides with questions. Readings from secondary and primary sources about the Arabian Peninsula’s environment.   
References
Alavosus, L. (ed.). (2005). History alive: The medieval world and beyond. Palo Alto, Ca: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute,
Hitti, P. K.. (1996). The Arabs: A short history. Washington D.C., USA: Regnery Publishing Inc.
Langewiesche, W. (1996). The physics of blown sand. Sahara unveiled, New York, NY: William Morrow & Co,
The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Previous lesson include, Synthesizing a map of the trade routes, physical, and geographical features of the Arabian Peninsula using three sources: topographical map, map of the silk roads, and weather.com.
Future lessons include analyzing the origins of the Islam and its relationship to the environment.

10. SURVIVOR – 600 C.E. How Arabians survived in the mountains
Select visual based on key observations made by class. Should have time to complete 2.
Each survivor environment includes:
Visual: 1) Harsh Desert of Arabian Peninsula, 2) Oases haven, 3) Jabal Shammar Mt. Range, 4) Coastal Plan.
Oral Reading: Description of environment and potential challenges for survival. If possible, reading from primary source describing environment.
Time for Brainstorm: Use Jeopardy music while groups think of ways to survive.
Think-Pair-Share & Active Listening Drill
Active Listening Drill – three students used.
Person A: provides reason with explanation on why it would work.
Person B: Listens and responds with “what you’re saying is…” (paraphrases A’s argument using different words) A either affirms or corrects.
Person C: Listens to B and responds with “So you mean…” (Explains why B’s answer is important) B either affirms or corrects.
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

11. How Arabians survived in the mountains
(Alavosus, L., ed., 2005).

12. Course: 7th grade Medieval World Social Studies
Survivor: Adapting to Geographical Challenges – A Historical Analysis
California State Content Standard:
7.2 – Students analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of the civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages.
7.2:1 – Identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabic peninsula, its relationship to surrounding bodies of land and water, and nomadic and sedentary ways of life.
Objective:
Students will identify the physical features and describe the climate of the Arabian Peninsula and its relationship to surrounding lands.
Students will critically analyze the geographic terrain to determine how to adapt and survive in the terrain with regards to
shelter, food/water, safety, & economics.
Students will practice active listening and synthesis of classmates ideas.
Materials: Geography visuals of Arabian Peninsula (Alavosus, 2005). Powerpoint slides with questions. Readings from secondary and primary sources about the Arabian Peninsula’s environment.   
References
Alavosus, L. (ed.). (2005). History alive: The medieval world and beyond. Palo Alto, Ca: Teachers’ Curriculum Institute,
Hitti, P. K.. (1996). The Arabs: A short history. Washington D.C., USA: Regnery Publishing Inc.
Langewiesche, W. (1996). The physics of blown sand. Sahara unveiled, New York, NY: William Morrow & Co,
The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Previous lesson include, Synthesizing a map of the trade routes, physical, and geographical features of the Arabian Peninsula using three sources: topographical map, map of the silk roads, and weather.com.
Future lessons include analyzing the origins of the Islam and its relationship to the environment.