Sumerian+Civilizations

SUMERIAN CIVILIZATION

Introduction to Web Quest: You are a geographer and a cultural anthropologist. Your assignment is to uncover and to evaluate how early Sumer was a proactive government. A proactive government is practical in nature. It recognizes the importance of protecting its civilization by creating a bureaucracy that will work towards self-protection. It anticipates the societies’ geographic, economic and social needs. The Sumerians were one of the world’s first advanced civilizations. They devised a writing system, schools, traded, constructed homes, palaces, temples, irrigated their land and even had a marketplace. Their contributions to civilization were numerous! To do this assessment you will examine how Sumer organized itself as a civilization, and how the bureaucracy handled its economic and environmental affairs. As a geographer you recognize the importance of location and terrain. Therefore, you will look at and examine a map of the region and records that describe its environmental concerns. You will also review academic research and the interpretations of other historians regarding this ancient Mesopotamian region.

Task Your team has been assigned the task of interpreting and describing historical records, a map and academic research. Your team is to hand in a display that describes and evaluates Sumerian civilization. It should contain the following: · life in the Sumerian city-states. · an organizational pyramid which ranks the Sumerian social classes; · another organizational chart which demonstrates the bureaucratic activities preformed by the government; · a map/diagram of a Sumerian town and its bazaar or marketplace; · a geographic map of the region that includes—the fertile crescent, neighboring communities, the rivers and bodies of water; · a drawing of the ziggurat with a description of its role in their society; · list and describe the accomplishments and challenges of the society. · Describe the influence Sumerians had on later Mesopotamian civilizations

Process

You will choose a partner and work in PAIRS.
 * Step 1: **

Use the following resources to prepare your presentation.
 * Step2:**

[] [|http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/MESO/SUMER.HTM] [] [] [] [] http://www.iun.edu/~hisdcl/h113_2001/ancientmesopotamia.htm @http://mesopotamia.mrdonn.org/sumer.html @http://history-world.org/sumeria.htm @http://hypermedia.educ.psu.edu/k-12/edpgs/su96/meso/mesopotamia.html @http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/law.html @http://www.east-haven.k12.ct.us/dcmoore/mesopotamia/government.html []

In preparing your display, each member of your team will need to equally contribute to information on the following :
 * Step3:**

· life in the Sumerian city-states. · an organizational pyramid which ranks the Sumerian social classes; · another organizational chart which demonstrates the bureaucratic activities preformed by the government; · a map/diagram of a Sumerian town and its bazaar or marketplace; · a geographic map of the region that includes—the fertile crescent, neighboring communities, the rivers and bodies of water; · a drawing of the ziggurat with a description of its role in their society; · list and describe the accomplishments and challenges of the society. · Describe the influence Sumerians had on later Mesopotamian civilizations Rubric Each group will be graded according to the following simple table:

5 || Good 4 || Satisfactory 3 || Needs Improvement 2 ||
 * Performance || Excellent
 * Completion of Display || Full completion of all of the assigned tasks with pictures, maps and meaningful text || Professional looking board with all of the assigned tasks with pictures, maps and meaningful text || Completed of board some of the assigned tasks and meaningful text. || Partially completed board and text. ||