Grade 7 Social Science cheat sheet

River valley civilizations (Mesopotamia/Tigris-Euphrates, Egypt/Nile, Indus, Shang/Yellow River) share features: fertile floodplains, irrigation, surplus crops, cities, writing, and specialized labor.

Mesopotamian innovations include cuneiform on clay tablets, the wheel, the plow, and Hammurabi's Code (c. 1754 BCE), which set public, written penalties on a retribution principle.

Classical Greece contributed direct democracy in Athens (adult male citizens only), while Rome contributed republicanism, written law (Twelve Tables), and the Senate.

Major world religions and philosophies emerged in the classical era: Hinduism and Buddhism in India, Judaism in the Near East, Confucianism and Daoism in China, and Christianity in the Roman world.

The Silk Roads linked Han China, Central Asia, India, Persia, and Rome, moving goods, technologies, and ideas - including Buddhism - across Eurasia.

The Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th centuries) preserved and extended Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge in mathematics (algebra), medicine, and astronomy.

The Columbian Exchange after 1492 moved crops, animals, and diseases between hemispheres; smallpox devastated Indigenous populations while maize, potatoes, and horses spread globally.

The Renaissance and Reformation (14th–16th centuries) challenged Church authority through humanism, printing (Gutenberg, c. 1450), and critiques that produced Protestant branches.

Latitude measures distance north or south of the equator (0°–90°); longitude measures east or west of the prime meridian (0°–180°), and both are expressed in degrees.

Climate is long-term average weather; it is driven by latitude, elevation, ocean currents, prevailing winds, and proximity to water, while weather is short-term.

Plate tectonics explains earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building along convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.

The water cycle moves water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration; watersheds collect runoff into shared drainage basins.

Push factors drive migration away from a place (war, famine, persecution); pull factors attract migrants (jobs, safety, family, freedom).

Population density equals total population divided by land area, usually reported as people per square kilometer.

Push-pull migration, urbanization, and resource extraction are human systems that reshape physical landscapes and can cause deforestation and soil erosion.

Maps distort reality; equal-area projections preserve area, while conformal projections preserve shape, so projection choice depends on the map's purpose.

Popular sovereignty holds that government authority derives from the consent of the governed; the U.S. Preamble and Declaration of Independence both assert this.

Separation of powers divides authority among legislative (makes law), executive (enforces law), and judicial (interprets law) branches.

Checks and balances let each branch limit the others: veto overrides, judicial review, treaty ratification, and impeachment are examples.

Federalism divides power between a national government and states; delegated powers are national, reserved powers are state, and concurrent powers are shared.

The Bill of Rights (first ten amendments) protects individual liberties from government overreach, including speech, religion, due process, and jury rights.

Rule of law means no person or official is above the law; it requires written, publicly known, equally applied rules.

Types of government differ by who holds power: democracy (people), monarchy (hereditary ruler), oligarchy (small group), and authoritarian/totalitarian systems.

Citizens participate through voting, petitioning, jury service, running for office, and civic organizations; voting eligibility in the U.S. requires citizenship, age 18, and registration.

Scarcity means unlimited wants exceed limited resources; because of it, every choice has an opportunity cost - the value of the best alternative forgone.

The four factors of production are land (natural resources), labor, capital (tools and machinery), and entrepreneurship.

Supply and demand determine market price: as price rises, quantity supplied generally rises and quantity demanded generally falls.

Command, market, and traditional economies differ in who answers the three basic questions: what to produce, how to produce, and for whom.

Comparative advantage explains trade: a country gains by specializing in goods it produces at lower opportunity cost, even if another country is better at everything.

Trade barriers include tariffs (taxes on imports), quotas (limits on quantity), and embargoes (bans); each usually raises consumer prices.

GDP measures the total market value of final goods and services produced in a country in a given period; it does not count intermediate goods or unpaid work.

Inflation is a general rise in price levels that reduces purchasing power; central banks may raise interest rates to slow it.

Primary sources are created at the time by participants or witnesses (letters, artifacts, photographs); secondary sources interpret them later (textbooks, documentaries).

Sourcing asks who made a source, when, for whom, and why - the answers shape how much weight the source deserves.

Corroboration compares multiple independent sources; agreement across them strengthens a claim, and disagreement signals a need for further inquiry.

Contextualization places a source in its time, place, and culture to avoid judging the past by present standards (presentism).

Bias is a slant or one-sided emphasis; it does not automatically make a source useless, but it must be identified and accounted for.

A claim is defensible when supported by specific evidence and reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim.

Chronological thinking orders events by cause and effect; a timeline distinguishes causes, events, and consequences.

Maps, graphs, and charts are sources too: reading titles, labels, units, and scales prevents misreading data.

River valley civilizations (Mesopotamia/Tigris-Euphrates, Egypt/Nile, Indus, Shang/Yellow River) share features: fertile floodplains, irrigation, surplus crops, cities, writing, and specialized labor.

Mesopotamian innovations include cuneiform on clay tablets, the wheel, the plow, and Hammurabi's Code (c. 1754 BCE), which set public, written penalties on a retribution principle.

Classical Greece contributed direct democracy in Athens (adult male citizens only), while Rome contributed republicanism, written law (Twelve Tables), and the Senate.

Major world religions and philosophies emerged in the classical era: Hinduism and Buddhism in India, Judaism in the Near East, Confucianism and Daoism in China, and Christianity in the Roman world.

The Silk Roads linked Han China, Central Asia, India, Persia, and Rome, moving goods, technologies, and ideas - including Buddhism - across Eurasia.

The Islamic Golden Age (8th–13th centuries) preserved and extended Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge in mathematics (algebra), medicine, and astronomy.

The Columbian Exchange after 1492 moved crops, animals, and diseases between hemispheres; smallpox devastated Indigenous populations while maize, potatoes, and horses spread globally.

The Renaissance and Reformation (14th–16th centuries) challenged Church authority through humanism, printing (Gutenberg, c. 1450), and critiques that produced Protestant branches.

Latitude measures distance north or south of the equator (0°–90°); longitude measures east or west of the prime meridian (0°–180°), and both are expressed in degrees.

Climate is long-term average weather; it is driven by latitude, elevation, ocean currents, prevailing winds, and proximity to water, while weather is short-term.

Plate tectonics explains earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building along convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.

The water cycle moves water through evaporation, condensation, precipitation, runoff, and infiltration; watersheds collect runoff into shared drainage basins.

Push factors drive migration away from a place (war, famine, persecution); pull factors attract migrants (jobs, safety, family, freedom).

Population density equals total population divided by land area, usually reported as people per square kilometer.

Push-pull migration, urbanization, and resource extraction are human systems that reshape physical landscapes and can cause deforestation and soil erosion.

Maps distort reality; equal-area projections preserve area, while conformal projections preserve shape, so projection choice depends on the map's purpose.

Popular sovereignty holds that government authority derives from the consent of the governed; the U.S. Preamble and Declaration of Independence both assert this.

Separation of powers divides authority among legislative (makes law), executive (enforces law), and judicial (interprets law) branches.

Checks and balances let each branch limit the others: veto overrides, judicial review, treaty ratification, and impeachment are examples.

Federalism divides power between a national government and states; delegated powers are national, reserved powers are state, and concurrent powers are shared.

The Bill of Rights (first ten amendments) protects individual liberties from government overreach, including speech, religion, due process, and jury rights.

Rule of law means no person or official is above the law; it requires written, publicly known, equally applied rules.

Types of government differ by who holds power: democracy (people), monarchy (hereditary ruler), oligarchy (small group), and authoritarian/totalitarian systems.

Citizens participate through voting, petitioning, jury service, running for office, and civic organizations; voting eligibility in the U.S. requires citizenship, age 18, and registration.

Scarcity means unlimited wants exceed limited resources; because of it, every choice has an opportunity cost - the value of the best alternative forgone.

The four factors of production are land (natural resources), labor, capital (tools and machinery), and entrepreneurship.

Supply and demand determine market price: as price rises, quantity supplied generally rises and quantity demanded generally falls.

Command, market, and traditional economies differ in who answers the three basic questions: what to produce, how to produce, and for whom.

Comparative advantage explains trade: a country gains by specializing in goods it produces at lower opportunity cost, even if another country is better at everything.

Trade barriers include tariffs (taxes on imports), quotas (limits on quantity), and embargoes (bans); each usually raises consumer prices.

GDP measures the total market value of final goods and services produced in a country in a given period; it does not count intermediate goods or unpaid work.

Inflation is a general rise in price levels that reduces purchasing power; central banks may raise interest rates to slow it.

Primary sources are created at the time by participants or witnesses (letters, artifacts, photographs); secondary sources interpret them later (textbooks, documentaries).

Sourcing asks who made a source, when, for whom, and why - the answers shape how much weight the source deserves.

Corroboration compares multiple independent sources; agreement across them strengthens a claim, and disagreement signals a need for further inquiry.

Contextualization places a source in its time, place, and culture to avoid judging the past by present standards (presentism).

Bias is a slant or one-sided emphasis; it does not automatically make a source useless, but it must be identified and accounted for.

A claim is defensible when supported by specific evidence and reasoning that connects the evidence to the claim.

Chronological thinking orders events by cause and effect; a timeline distinguishes causes, events, and consequences.

Maps, graphs, and charts are sources too: reading titles, labels, units, and scales prevents misreading data.