Lesson #1 Handout: Your Job (student's job): Review the gifts

the world has received from each civilization below. Choose one
civilization. Brainstorm within your group what the world would
be like today if this civilization had never invented these things,
and no one else had either! Be prepared to share three examples of
world change, and how that change might affect you.

• Ancient Mesopotamia: the wheel, the sailboat, the first

written laws, Hammurabi's Code
• Ancient Egypt: a number system based on 10, a 365 day
calendar, use of textiles to make clothing (linen, wool,
cotton)
• Ancient Greece: trial by jury, democracy, the Olympics
• Ancient Rome concrete, paved roads, the milestone (road
signs)
• Ancient China: the compass, paper, gunpowder