History-Social Science
The EEI Curriculum contains 45 history-social science units that teach select standards to mastery while increasing environmental literacy.

Some Things Change and Some Things Stay the Same
Reading Grade: Kindergarten
Students become familiar with the idea that history relates to events, people, and places of other times.

On the Move
Reading Grade: First Grade
With a focus on transportation changes, students learn how the methods of the past and present rely on ecosystem goods and services provided by natural systems.

People and Places
Reading Grade: First Grade
Human activities can change natural systems and these changes can affect how people live.

California’s Lands: Then and Now
Reading Grade: Second Grade
This unit focuses on land use patterns in California and how these patterns have changed over time.

From Field to Table
Reading Grade: Second Grade
This unit teaches students about food production and consumption, both long ago and today.

The Dollars and Sense of Food Production
Reading Grade: Second Grade
Food production depends on the availability of limited natural resources. Decisions about what to produce and what to consume can be affected by the quality, quantity, and reliability of the resources provided by natural systems.

California Indian People: Exploring Tribal Regions
Reading Grade: Third Grade
Explore the interactions between the California Indian nations (peoples) and the components and processes of the natural systems in their local region.

California’s Economy: Natural Choices
Reading Grade: Third Grade
Local producers have used and are using natural resources, human resources, and capital resources to produce goods and services.

The Geography of Where We Live
Reading Grade: Third Grade
This unit uses a series of wall maps to help students learn about their local region: the deserts, mountains, valleys, hills, coastal areas, oceans, and lakes.

California Indian Peoples and Management of Natural Resources
Reading Grade: Fourth Grade
Students compare the ecosystem goods and services available to California Indian people of the past, their worldviews, how they used and manage resources, and how they established trade networks to access goods from far-off regions.

Cultivating California
Reading Grade: Fourth Grade
This unit provides an environmental framework for discussing the role of the Franciscan missionaries in changing the economy of California.

Reflections of Where We Live
Reading Grade: Fourth Grade
Different aspects of human activity reflect the physical features of the environment in which they live.

Witnessing the Gold Rush
Reading Grade: Fourth Grade
The search for gold and the influx of settlers influenced the natural environment (rivers, forests, mountains, valleys), and placed great demands upon our state’s natural and social resources.

Human Settlement and the Natural Regions of the Eastern Seaboard
Reading Grade: Fifth Grade
Explore the human settlement and natural features of the eastern seaboard, including the physical locations of the American Indian nations and the 13 colonies from the 1600’s to 1763.

Nature and Newcomers
Reading Grade: Fifth Grade
Uncover connections between the natural environment (natural systems and resources) and the built environment (the ways that human beings attempt to influence the natural world).

Agricultural Advances in Ancient Civilizations
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
Learn about the importance of nature and natural cycles as well as the development of political, economic, religious, and social structures of the early civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kush.

Egypt and Kush: A Tale of Two Kingdoms
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
The unique geography of the Nile Valley region and its myriad of natural resources supported extensive cultures and a vast network of trade.

Paleolithic People: Adapting to Change
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
Compare the lifestyles of different Paleolithic cultures and the ecosystem goods and services upon which they depended.

Paleolithic People: Tools, Tasks, and Fire
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
Explore the essential characteristics of scavenger/hunter-gatherer societies, including the development of tools and the use of fire.

River Systems and Ancient Peoples
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
Learn to connect cycles, flow, and the role of rivers in ecosystems to the rise of the world’s oldest cities in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The Rivers and Ancient Empires of China and India
Reading Grade: Sixth Grade
Geographic and climatic factors contributed to the rise of great dynasties in India and China and the people depended on the ecosystem goods and services provided by the rivers.

Arabic Trade Networks: Growth and Expansions in the Middle Ages
Reading Grade: Seventh Grade
Students explore the relationships between components of the natural system and the social systems of Arabia, specifically those related to trade and commerce.

Broken Jade and Tarnished Gold
Reading Grade: Seventh Grade
Building on students’ understanding of the diverse and resource-rich regions of Central and South America, this unit explores the rise and fall of the Aztec and Inca empires.

Genius Across the Centuries
Reading Grade: Seventh Grade
Chinese inventions and discoveries have influenced the natural and human systems of medieval China as well as the modern world.

Managing Nature’s Bounty: Feudalism in Medieval Europe
Reading Grade: Seventh Grade
Feudalism served as a mechanism for controlling access to and the use of ecosystem goods and services in medieval Europe.

Sun Gods and Jaguar Kings
Reading Grade: Seventh Grade
The diverse geography and natural resources of Central and South America set the stage for the rise of the first urban societies in this part of the world. (Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations).

Agricultural and Industrial Development in the United States (1877–1914)
Reading Grade: Eighth Grade
Examine the influence of urbanization and renewed industrialization at the turn of the century on natural systems and in defining the course of the United States into the 20th century.

America Grows
Reading Grade: Eighth Grade
Explore human dependence upon ecosystem goods and services provided by natural systems by focusing on immigration from Northern Europe to the United States during the first half of the 19th century.

Industrialization, Urbanization, and the Conservation Movement
Reading Grade: Eighth Grade
Students look closely at global economic imperative of the late 19th and early 20th century and its influence on the natural world through the development of the San Francisco Bay Area during this time.

Land, Politics, and Expansions in the Early Republic
Reading Grade: Eighth Grade
This unit teaches students about the physical landscape of the United States, political divisions, and territorial expansion during the terms of the first four US Presidents.

Struggles with Water
Reading Grade: Eighth Grade
Students learn about the role the great rivers and other fresh water resources played in the United States in the early 1800’s.

Britain Solves a Problem and Creates the Industrial Revolution
Reading Grade: Tenth Grade
Students analyze ways that natural resources, entrepreneurship, labor, and capital combined to produce key events and processes in the Industrial Revolution.

Growth of Population, Cities, and Demands
Reading Grade: Tenth Grade
This unit teaches students about the relationship between the Industrial Revolution and the growth of urban centers around the world.

New Imperialism: The Control of India’s and South Africa’s Resources
Reading Grade: Tenth Grade
This unit focuses on colonial experiences in India and South Africa during British hegemony.

New Imperialism: The Search for Natural Resources
Reading Grade: Tenth Grade
Investigate the decision-making processes used by industrializing nations in the mid-1800’s.

Many Voices, Many Visions: Analyzing Contemporary Environmental Issues
Reading Grade: Eleventh Grade
This unit focuses on the wide range of considerations and decision-making processes affecting natural resources management policies.

Mass Production, Marketing, and Consumption in the Roaring Twenties
Reading Grade: Eleventh Grade
Students explore the “Roaring Twenties” to understand the dynamics of economic change and its social, political, and environmental consequences.

Postwar Industries and the Emerging Environmental Movement
Reading Grade: Eleventh Grade
Examine the economic boom that followed World War II, especially in agriculture and energy industries. Explore how technological changes after World War II resulted in increased demands for natural resources.

The United States and Mexico: Working Together
Reading Grade: Eleventh Grade
Students learn about treaties and agreements between the United States and Mexico related to environmental concerns.

Active Voices: Civil Society and the Environment
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
Examine how citizens have influenced governmental issues in ways other than voting.

Government and the Economy: An Environmental Perspective
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
This unit focuses on understanding the role of government in a free-market economy from the perspective of addressing environmental concerns.

Making and Implementing Environmental Laws
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
This unit examines lawmaking processes and roles of federal, state, and local governments related to environmental and public health.

Private Property and Resource Conservation
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
Students explore economic issues as they relate to resource conservation.

Sustaining Economies and the Earth’s Resources
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
Students study “sustainable economics,” an economic system with a focus of sustaining ecosystem goods and services over a long period of time.

This Land Is Our Land
Reading Grade: Twelfth Grade
Explore California-specific laws, regulations, policies, and decision-making processes related to environmental decisions and individual rights.