Utah K–6 social studies standards

Compare how people lived in earlier times and how their lives would be different today (for example, growing food, making clothing, living by different rules and laws).

Use a variety of texts to analyze and retell the stories of a diverse range of key historical figures, including some from United States history, and make inferences about why they are remembered and honored as people who exemplify the traits of honesty, integrity, morality, civility, duty, honor, service, respect, and obedience to law.

Explain how families provide physical, social, and emotional support and how each family has its own unique history.

Construct a simple map, and explain how the map represents a place.

Explain how a globe is a model of the Earth.

Recognize and describe geographical features in their community that make it unique (for example, mountains, rivers, lakes, roads).

Describe and use relative location terms of objects (for example, left/right, above/below, up/down, near/far) while using maps and globes.

Describe some of the rules students or family members follow and why they are important as a member of a family, class, and school.

List and describe the essential qualities needed to learn and work together as friends, neighbors, and family members (for example, honesty, integrity, morality, civility, duty, honor, service, respect, obedience to law).

Identify ways that people work together to build a strong community (for example, parents, religious leaders, teachers and other school personnel, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, business owners).

Explain why national, state, and other symbols and actions (including the United States flag, the Pledge of Allegiance, the bald eagle, the Utah flag) are considered important. What rules and traditions have been made to reflect that importance?

Make distinctions between basic human needs and individual wants and how that can change over time.

Relate how different types of work can help people and communities meet their needs and wants.

Identify ways that people use money, including spending, saving, and sharing.

Explain why people may see historical events from different points of view.

Summarize the contributions of a diverse range of historical figures and groups in their community, state, and nation, and evaluate their significance (for example, figures might be chosen based on their examples of honesty, integrity, morality, civility, duty, honor, service, respect, obedience to law).

Use primary sources (for example, artifacts and documents such as photographs, newspapers, speakers, stories, songs) to make inferences about why certain events in history are remembered.

Create a primary source to show how their personal histories are shaped by family, school, and community (for example, timeline, interview, artifact collection, recipe book).

Construct a simple map of a neighborhood, classroom, school, or the setting of a story.

Differentiate between natural and engineered geographical features in an area (for example, engineered geographic features include highways, bridges, airports, railroads, buildings, dams, reservoirs).

Use maps and globes to locate their local community, Utah, the United States, the seven continents, and the five oceans (that is, Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, South America; Antarctic [Southern] Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Pacific Ocean).

Explain the reasons that people, animals, and goods move.

Compare how classroom rules are similar to laws in the community.

Identify the ways that people can function as members of a school and/or community by sharing principles, goals, and traditions.

Explain how diverse community groups work together to accomplish common tasks, solve problems, and fulfill responsibilities.

Identify the symbols, landmarks, and essential documents of the school, community, state, and nation (including the national motto and state emblem). Demonstrate how to show respect for those items, including care and disposal of the United States flag.

Demonstrate characteristics of responsible citizenship (for example, respect others' property, treat people with dignity, find solutions to conflicts, take responsibility for one's actions, take care of school grounds).

Explain the costs and benefits of spending and saving in order to meet needs and wants.

Identify ways people make a living in the community.

Identify and explain the roles and contributions of consumers, producers, and distributors in the community.

Use primary sources (for example, artifacts and documents such as interviews, photographs, newspapers, speakers, stories, songs) to document the chronology of important events in their personal, family, school, local, or broader community history (including three significant events).

Use primary sources to identify how their community has changed or remained the same over time, and make inferences about the reasons why.

Summarize key ideas included in the Declaration of Independence (for example, purpose of government, equality, representative government, limited government, rule of law, natural rights, common good).

Retell the histories of key people and events connected to state and national symbols, landmarks, and essential documents (for example, Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, Francis Scott Key and The Star Spangled Banner, Abraham Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson and national parks, Utah pioneers and Utah's nickname and motto).

Identify the achievements of significant Americans, including those from local and other diverse perspectives, and explain their importance.

Locate and identify the poles, equator, continents, oceans, the United States, Utah, and their town or city. Identify and name the states that border Utah and the countries that border the United States.

Interpret and construct physical maps using the title, key, symbols, 8-point compass rose, cardinal directions, and alphanumeric grids.

Identify examples of major geographical features in their local region, state, and country and their significance for the people who live there.

Describe how location, climate, and physical features affect where people live and work, and how communities modify the environment to meet their needs over time (for example, irrigation, dams, reservoirs, roads, buildings, bridges).

Describe and give examples of interdependent relationships between vegetation, animal life, geographic features, and people specific to a local region (for example, irrigation, water conservation, farming, helping neighbors, ranching, providing vegetation that supports pollinators, protection of endangered animals).

Identify natural resources, and cite ways people show stewardship through responsible use, conservation, protection, and replenishment.

On a map of the world, locate where their families or other families in the community historically came from. With support, curate and share information about the traditional food, cultural customs, recreation, religion, and music of that country and/or region.

Define the essential qualities of good community members (for example, honesty, integrity, morality, civility, duty, honor, service, respect, and obedience to law).

Describe the rights and responsibilities of citizens in the United States and Utah.

Provide examples of ways in which responsible community members have worked together to resolve conflicts, solve problems, and create unity within their community.

Consider why it is necessary for cities and towns to have governments, and describe ways local representative government promotes the general welfare of their community (for example, water, sewer, garbage pick-up, road and trail maintenance, public schools).

Identify current leaders (for example, family, school, community, governor, national leaders) and their responsibilities. Discuss the traits of effective leaders.

Identify celebrations and state and national holidays that remember and honor people and events in the history of Utah and the United States.

Explain the benefits of personal savings.

Explain how scarcity of resources and opportunity cost require people to make choices to satisfy wants and needs.

Describe and compare a variety of services provided by local economic institutions, including businesses and non-profit organizations.

Describe how people can be both producers and consumers of local goods and services.

Identify the specialized work necessary to manufacture, transport, and market goods and services.

Discuss the basic differences between different forms of government, including a constitutional republic, a pure democracy, an oligarchy, and a monarchy.

Explain why the first three words of the United States Constitution are vital to the workings of representative government.

Summarize how the Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and explain how laws provide order and stability.

Identify the rights protected by the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, and analyze how those rights affect them.

Explain how the Constitution balances power between the three branches of government at both the state and federal levels (checks and balances).

Locate their community, city or town, state, country, and continent on print and digital maps of the earth, and contrast their sizes and the relationships in scale.

Describe how geography (that is, physical features and natural resources) has shaped where and how their community developed, how it sustains itself, and how it will sustain itself in the future.

Define their own cultures or the cultures of their communities (for example, art, music, food, dance, system of writing, architecture, government to which they are regularly exposed or of which they are part).

Evaluate how their community has changed over time (for example, economic interdependence, changes to the environment).

Analyze how their community has been shaped by the diverse people who have resided within it. Compare primary and secondary sources (when available) from or about these people.

Reflect upon the processes used to address needs and reach solutions within their family, their classroom, or other groups of which they are a part. Compare those to the democratic processes used to address needs and reach solutions within their communities.

Research improvements that have been made in their community over time (for example, schools, roads, emergency services, utilities, jobs, recreation, libraries, clean environment, protection of civil rights).

Describe some of the civic roles that people fulfill within their community, and explain the reasons why people choose to serve in those roles and how they benefit the community.

Explain how their community's leaders are elected or appointed and effective ways to work together with them to improve the community.

Describe why governments collect taxes and how they decide how to use them.

Discuss how the choices of individuals and leaders affect their community and its future (for example, supporting local businesses, volunteering, voting).

Collaborate with peers to address a need in their local community through service.

Choose a community outside of the United States. Locate that community on both print and digital maps of the Earth, their continent, country, and city or town, and contrast their sizes and the relationships in scale.

Research the geography (that is, physical features and natural resources) of the community they chose in 3.4.1, and make inferences regarding how the geography influenced the cultures that have developed there.

Define the cultures of the community they chose in 3.4.1 (for example, art, music, food, dance, system of writing, architecture, government, religion).

Examine the types of government found in the community they chose in 3.4.1, and compare them with the government of their community (for example, how community leaders are selected, how the government maintains order, keeps people safe, and makes and enforces rules and laws; the role of a community member; the inclusion of immigrants).

Examine how and why the community they chose in 3.4.1 has adapted to and/or modified its environment over time, and identify the consequences of these environmental changes.

Use a variety of geographic tools to identify Utah and its surrounding states: latitude, longitude, hemisphere, climate, natural resources, landforms, and regions (for example, Rocky Mountains, Colorado Plateau, Basin and Ridge Region).

Examine maps of Utah's precipitation, temperature, vegetation, population, and natural resources; make inferences about relationships between the data sets. Describe how and why humans have changed the physical environment of Utah to meet their needs (for example, reservoirs, irrigation, climate, transcontinental railroad).

Describe how the physical geography of Utah has both negative and positive consequences on our health and safety (for example, inversions, earthquakes, aridity, fire, recreation).

Use evidence (for example, artifacts, texts, oral traditions, geographic inquiry) to make inferences about, and explain the importance of, the geography of the land that would become Utah in the culture of one or more prehistoric or historic Native American cultures.

Explain the economic concepts of trade, scarcity, and supply and demand. Apply these concepts in analyzing the economic activity of Native American tribal groups that existed during this period in the land now called Utah and their trade with European-American trappers and traders..

Use primary and secondary sources to compare important aspects of the ways of life of at least two Native American tribal groups (for example, Ute, Paiute, Navajo (Diné), Shoshone, Goshute) existing within the land now called Utah and how those ways of life changed as settlers from Europe arrived prior to 1847.

Investigate the reasons why early explorers and frontiersmen came to the land now called Utah, and determine how their contributions are relevant to Utahns today.

Learn that while recorded history spans only a few centuries, humans have lived in the land now called Utah for thousands of years.

Recognize that for centuries the historic tribal groups of Utah—the Goshute, Navajo (Diné), Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute—adapted to their ever-changing environment.

Understand that more adaptations occurred due to contact and trade while Utah was part of the Spanish Empire and later Mexico.

Use primary sources to compare experiences of at least three groups' migration to Utah between 1847–1896 (for example, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, people from Greece, Italy, China).

Explain how Utah's physical geography provided opportunities and imposed constraints for human activities between 1847- 1896 (for example, agriculture, mining, settlement, communication, transportation networks) and how people changed the physical environment to meet their needs.

Describe the establishment of communities and the economic development of the Great Basin area under the direction of Brigham Young as the first Territorial Governor of Utah.

Identify the political challenges that delayed Utah's statehood, and explain how these challenges were overcome. Describe the involvement of Utah women in the state and national Women's Suffrage Movement.

Cite multiple perspectives to explain the historical significance and context of at least one conflict of this period (for example, The Utah War, The Mountain Meadows Massacre, The Bear River Massacre, The Black Hawk War).

Describe how and why humans have changed the physical environment of Utah to meet their needs (for example, reservoirs, irrigation, climate, transcontinental railroad) between 1847-1896.

Explain how the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad and other transportation and communication networks changed Utah's economy and led to greater economic interdependence.

Students will learn about the unprecedented migration, dramatic cultural change and conflicts, and new technologies of this era.

Study the migration of diverse populations who settled across the region that would become Utah.

Learn about some of the implications of this settlement on Native American communities.

Evaluate the relationships between the Industrial Revolution, the completion of the transcontinental railroad, other technologies, and the human and physical geography of the region.

Identify the function and location of state government. Analyze Article 1 of the Utah Constitution to explain how the enumerated rights reflect shared values.

Compare the Utah Constitution with the United States Constitution, noting the similarities (including legislative, executive and judicial branches, rights of citizens) and important/ significant differences (for example, role in education, public lands, local governance).

Identify Utah symbols, their connection to history and geography, and what these symbols tell us about our shared culture. Explain how they can show respect and appreciation for those symbols.

Use primary and secondary sources to explain how Utah's economy has changed over time (for example, recreation, tourism, mining, information technology, manufacturing, agriculture, petroleum production).

Analyze the way local, state, tribal, and federal governments interact with one another.

Use case studies to explain how national or global events between 1896–1999 (for example, World War I, the Spanish Flu Epidemic, the Great Depression, World War II, Japanese American Incarceration, the Cold War, civil rights movements, Americans with Disabilities Act) had an impact in their local communities and state.

Study Utah's continued development as a state, including learning about its Constitution and the role of geography in Utah's economy and settlement patterns.

Evaluate the roles and functions of different levels and types of governments.

Describe sovereignty as it relates to Native American sovereign nations (Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray reservation, Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, Navajo (Diné) Nation, Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, Confederated Tribes of Goshute, Skull Valley Band of Goshute) existing within Utah, and explain efforts to preserve and maintain their culture.

Make a case for the lasting historical significance of an event in recent Utah history (2000–present), and create an argument for including it in a historical text.

Use data and trends to make recommendations for the best sustainable development of Utah's resources (for example, forests, state lands, geology, coal, minerals, oil and gas, state parks, water, wildlife, School Trustlands).

Explain continuity and change over time by comparing experiences of today's immigrants in Utah with those of immigrants in Utah's past.

After studying examples of individuals or groups making positive changes in Utah, propose positive steps individual students or groups of students can implement (for example, raising awareness through digital media, energy and resource conservation, letter writing, fundraising).

Choose one of Utah's cultural institutions (for example Utah Symphony, The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, Utah Opera Company, Ballet West, Utah's Shakespeare Festival, Utah Festival Opera), and explain its historical significance as well as the cultural benefits to Utah families and our nation.

Examine, through a 21st century lens, the enduring central themes of diffusion of cultures, global interconnectedness, the importance of creating and sustaining community, and the need for a strong economy.

Recognize that most current events (for example, interactions between Native American sovereign nations and state and federal governments, concerns about water, tensions and questions about the proper role and jurisdiction of local, state, and federal governments, ideas about how best to grow Utah's economy) have their roots deeply embedded in Utah's rich history.

Cite examples to illustrate how the physical geography of North America (for example, landforms, seasons, weather, bodies of water) influenced the lives of Native American tribal groups.

Identify ideas, innovations, and contributions of Native Americans that have had a lasting impact on human civilization (for example, agriculture, respect for the earth and environment, inventions, fashion, art, government, language, medicines, ritual and ceremony).

Use maps and primary/secondary sources to evaluate the push and pull factors that led to exploration and colonization of North America (for example, fleeing persecution, enslavement, economic advancement, indentured servitude, religious freedom/isolationism).

Describe how conflicts over land, trade, and alliances sometimes arose during colonization in North America (for example, Bacon's Rebellion, King Philip's War, the French and Indian War).

Understand how geography had a major impact on the more than 500 tribes and over 50 million indigenous people living in North America prior to European exploration, as well as how it affected methods of exploration.

Evaluate how the Age of Exploration and early colonization opened the way for the global movement of ideas, innovations, foods, and values and how the world was affected in ways that we can still see today.

Use primary sources to craft an argument representing different perspectives during the period leading to the American Revolution (for example, men and women who were Loyalists, Patriots, Native Americans, enslaved people).

Summarize the most significant ideas found in the Declaration of Independence.

Explain how the actions of key individuals and groups influenced the outcome of the American Revolution (for example, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Mercy Warren, Alexander Hamilton, King George III, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, Marquis De Lafayette, Phillis Wheatley).

Use evidence from primary and secondary sources to craft an argument that explains how the American colonists prevailed over one of the world's most powerful empires.

Examine British colonial policies that led colonists to becoming Loyalists, Patriots, or neutral leading up to the American Revolution.

Recognize how the actions of key individuals influenced the outcome of the Revolution.

Explain how the colonists prevailed in gaining their independence and summarize significant ideas in the Declaration of Independence.

Use examples from the Constitution to investigate and explain the development, general purpose, and significant foundational principles of the United States government (a compound constitutional republic), as well as earlier documents and philosophies used to help develop the Constitution (for example, the Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Articles of Confederation, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy).

Apply the ideals found in the Preamble of the United States Constitution to historic and current events and issues.

Explain why the Founders established a compound constitutional republic with three branches, and cite historic and current examples of checks and balances.

Explain the significance of the Bill of Rights, and identify the impact of one of these amendments in history, a current event, and/or your daily life.

Investigate how constitutional amendments are passed, and provide examples of how amendments to the Constitution have extended rights to groups originally denied protection under the Constitution (for example, women, enslaved people, immigrants, Black Americans, Native Americans).

Describe the civic duties members of American society have today (for example, voting, holding public office, jury duty).

Use evidence from multiple perspectives (for example, pioneers, 49ers, Black Americans, Chinese Americans, Native Americans, new immigrants, people experiencing religious persecution) to make a case for the most significant social, economic, and environmental changes brought about by Westward Expansion and the Industrial Revolution.

Use primary sources to explain the driving forces for why people immigrated and emigrated during the 19th century, as well as the ways that movement changed the nation.

Summarize the impacts of forced relocation and assimilation on Native American people and how they have preserved their communities in the face of such adversity.

Use primary and secondary sources to compare how differences in economics, politics, and culture (for example, slavery, political and economic competition in Western territories) between the North and South led to the United States Civil War.

Explain how the actions of key individuals and groups influenced the outcome of the Civil War (for example, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, Clara Barton, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Stonewall Jackson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman).

Use evidence from primary and secondary sources to craft an argument that explains how the United States of America prevailed over the Confederate States of America in the United States Civil War.

Identify the Civil War's most important outcomes (for example, end of slavery, Reconstruction, expanded role of the federal government, industrial growth in the North), and explain how outcomes of the Civil War continue to resonate today.

Analyze changes brought by Westward Expansion, the Industrial Revolution, and the movement of people.

Understand the effects of this expansion and movement on Native American people and the preservation of those communities while facing adversity.

Examine how conflicts and division led to the United States Civil War and the lasting impacts of its outcome.

Compare the motivations for and desired outcomes of U.S. entry into two or more of the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Compare the motivations for and desired outcomes of the entry of the United States into World War I and World War II.

Craft an evidence-based argument for why a particular event should be considered the most significant moment in United States history from 1900–now (for example, Stock Market Crash of 1929, Great Depression, Voting Rights Act of 1965, terrorist attack on 9/11, the launch of the Internet).

Make an evidence-based claim about the role the United States should play as a world power and leader in solving current global problems.

Investigate and report on current pressing issues facing the United States, and propose potential solutions that they can support (for example, raising awareness through digital media, energy and resource conservation, letter writing, fundraising).

Evaluate the methods and impact of individuals and/or groups making positive changes in the United States today as models for civic engagement.

Connect the causes and lasting effects of at least two social movements and their leaders in the 20th Century (for example, the Women's Suffrage Movement, labor unions, the Civil Rights Movement, child labor reforms).

Research and summarize the accomplishments and contributions of a minority community in the United States today.

Discern characteristics needed for the transformation from simple societies to civilizations, and compare those characteristics in at least three different ancient civilizations found in different regions of the world (for example, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus River Valley, China, Inca, Aztec, Persia, Greece, Carthage, Gupta, Rome).

Throughout their study of world history, recognize the origins of major world religions (including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism). Evaluate the role religion played in the development of civilizations, colonization, imperialism, and independence movements.

Use maps to analyze how physical geography affected the development of three civilizations found in different regions of the world.

Identify some of the economic systems and technologies (for example, irrigation, writing systems, farming techniques, trading and bartering, coins and currency) created by three civilizations found in different regions of the world, and categorize how they met specific human needs or wants.

Use primary and secondary sources to compare the cultures of three civilizations found in different regions of the world and identify examples of cultural expression (for example, architecture, writing, philosophy, artwork).

Compare the purposes and functions of early governments (for example, monarchy, oligarchy, tyranny, pure democracy, republic, theocracy) to modern governments.

Compare how the aspects of geography, culture, religion, government, technology, and systems in ancient civilizations met human needs and wants, as well as allowed and encouraged the growth and development of civilizations as humans migrated across the earth.

Compare early governments to the foundations of modern governments.

Summarize key tenets of the major world religions (including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism).

Use primary and secondary sources to explain how the spread of religious ideas during the post-classical era influenced globalization (for example, spread of Islam, Crusades, cultural expression through art and architecture, Reformation).

Identify the most historically significant inventions and innovations from Ca. 500 C.E.–1500 C.E. (for example, printing press/ moveable type, astronomy, medicine), and argue their ongoing importance.

Use maps to trace how geography affected the ability of humans to connect with each other (for example, economic and cultural expansion, development of international trade, spread of disease).

Critique how and why systems of governance took steps toward self-rule during the post-classical period (for example, the rise of the merchant class, Magna Carta, feudalism in Europe and Japan).

Generalize how the spread of goods and ideas led to the increased influence of China, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East on globalization.

Compare how the transformation and changes of the post-classical era (Ca. 500 C.E.–1500 C.E.) set in motion the expansion of knowledge through science, language, writing, religion, and technological innovations.

Understand how this created and encouraged a global interconnectedness among distant societies and civilizations that ripples into modern history.

Describe how the conditions and motivations of exploration, colonization, and/or imperialism around the world connect to globalization.

Use maps and other data sets to make inferences about the lasting impacts of exploration, colonization, and/or imperialism.

Use primary and secondary sources to draw conclusions about the positive and negative economic impacts of expansion and major global conflicts (for example, Colombian Exchange, economic depressions, rise of factories, effects of famine, slave trade).

Explain the causes and effects of at least three events that created political, social, economic, industrial, and/or scientific revolution during the 18th–20th century (for example, the French Revolution, Vietnam, Latin American revolutions, the Enlightenment, independence movements of India and African nations).

Cite evidence to identify the causes and effects of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II.

Use primary and secondary sources to describe the impact and/or lasting historical significance of at least two major global events of the 20th–21st centuries not previously studied (for example, the Cold War, Vietnam, genocides, trade wars, terrorism, human rights movements).

Summarize the main differences between economic systems across the world (including communism, free market capitalism, individualism, socialism). Discuss the relationship between these systems and the concepts of freedom, equality, and fairness.

Determine how human rights and responsibilities around the world have developed over time, and identify ways individuals and organizations work to protect rights considered essential for all humans.

Cite current national and/or global events that exemplify the concept of global interconnectedness.

Examine varying perspectives and opportunities for civic responsibilities based on the backdrop of two world wars, competing economic systems, and unprecedented technological changes.

Review how human and civil rights have developed over time, and use current events to increase awareness and identify possible solutions.