Chapter 12 - The Maya

Mr. Bergh will give you a 4 Worlds sheet.

You will need this paper before starting the new chapter.

The title is "The Maya".

Write your name and period as well. Date optional.

If you run out of space as for another 4 Worlds Sheet.

Rubric (How you will be graded for the 4 Worlds.)

4 - I filled all 4 boxes with relevant notes, drawings, vocabulary, big ideas, and connected them together.

3 - I filled the equivalent of 3 boxes.

2 - I filled the equivalent of 2 boxes.

1 - I filled the equivalent of a box.

0 - I did not fill any boxes.

The Olmec were the first major civilization in Mexico. As such they are described as the "Mother Culture" of Central America. They lived in the tropical lowlands on the Gulf of Mexico in the present-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. The name Olmec is a Nahuatl—the Aztec language—word; it means the rubber people. We know very little about the Olmec. They taught the Mayans and Aztecs how to make rubber balls, write, and build pyramids. There are no surviving Olmec today so little is known about them beyond what we learned from Mayan and Aztec records.

The Mayans created their own Math on their own separate from the rest of the world. The image to the left shows the two number systems of the Maya, Mayan Numerals and Ritual Numerals. One for trading goods and one for their calendars, which used the faces for gods as stand-ins for numbers. The Mayans were in fact the first people to invent the concept of the number zero (0)!

Buddy up with a student next to you. It's time to compare you notes to theirs. Each buddy will allow the other to view their notes. Then you will modify your notes. Make sure you both have similar key words and main ideas. If one student knows something the other doesn't share that to fill in the gaps. If one student know something but the other things it's not important or incorrect, advise them to cross it out.

Finally it's time to write our summaries. Flip the 4 Worlds sheet. Write at least four sentences, once for each of the 4 worlds, summarizing what you have learned.