Seventh Grade Social Studies Week 1

What are Universal Human Rights?

All learning on Canvas will focus on the two learning targets/goals below. Feel free to email your teacher with any thoughts or questions you have while moving through this material.

The focus will be on Human Rights. This would have been your next unit in 7th Grade Social Studies.

***Note: You will not need to submit anything this week. This week's lesson is just for you.***

Learning Target 1: Describe the importance of Universal Human Rights.
Learning Target 2: Evaluate the response of individuals and governments to the coronavirus pandemic.

Part 1: Zombie Apocalypse (Infectious Disease) Contingency Plan

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been making plans to combat the zombie apocalypse. How prepared are you?

Step 1: Read and Watch

Read: What would happen if one day the dead rose up, hungry for human flesh and brain? This scenario has played out in movies and books for decades, but science fiction fans aren’t the only ones giving some thought to the zombie apocalypse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Links to an external site. (CDC), major universities, and even the Department of Defense have plans for the day the dead rise, not because they expect it but because it serves as a useful intellectual exercise for infectious disease Links to an external site. and foreign policy. Although international protocols exist to prevent the rapid spread of disease, each country’s individual policies, infrastructure, and interests ultimately decide the course of any outbreak, including zombies.

Watch: Watch the video below and think about how prepared you are for a zombie apocalypse.

***Note: the video was created before the current COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic***

Step 2: Think

Directions: Create your own plan for surviving the zombie apocalypse. Use the questions below to help you plan.

What supplies will you need and why, and how will you get them?
Who will you bring with you? Will you isolate yourself or try and gather as many people as you can to be with you?
How prepared do you think the US is in combating the zombie apocalypse? Explain your reasoning.
What recommendations would you make to lawmakers in the US and International leaders for combating the zombie apocalypse?
What are the similarities and differences between the COVID-19 pandemic and the zombie apocalypse?

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Part Two: How About Some Humanity?

These are unprecedented times. No one alive today has ever lived through a crisis quite like the COVID-19 pandemic. We currently live on the front lines of history. Protecting human rights is now as important as it has ever been. The next 5 weeks we will focus on human rights in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since we are all in this together, let's finish this week with a little humanity brought to you courtesy of the one and only, Maya Angelou.

Step 1: Read, Watch, and Think

Directions: Watch, Listen to, and Read the poem by Maya Angelou below. Determine what it means to you. This poem was chosen for its complex imagery and its profound beauty; both of which we could all use more of these days.

Questions to think about before and after reading:

1. 1. In your opinion what do you think Maya Angelou's purpose for writing this poem was?
  2. Why do you think she titled the poem “ A Brave and Startling Truth?” What does this mean?
  3. What do you think she was referring too in the last stanza by the word “it”?
  4. Does this poem relate to human rights? Explain.

Read along with Maya Angelou as she reads the poem " A Brave and Startling Truth".

Transcript of "A Brave and Startling Truth" Download "A Brave and Startling Truth"