Process
Read through all of the directions below before beginning your research, poster and project. Refer to the evaluation page as you complete each step to make sure that you are completing the assignments correctly.
1. Each of you in the group must choose one of the following explorers to research for your poster and project. You will work as a group to research all of the group's explorers ( 3 or 4 depending on how many group members there are). You are responsible for helping each other.
Ferdinand Magellan (1519) Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1490-1557) Giovanni De Verrazano (1524) Estevanico Leif Eriksson (1000) Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) (1497) Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1513) Ponce de Leon (1513) Hernando Cortes (1519-1521) Jacques Cartier (1534) Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1540-1542) Hernando de Alarcon (1540) Hernando
Martin Frobisher (1576) Samuel de Champlain (1604) Henry Hudson (1610) William Baffin (1616 Jacques Marquette (1673) Louis Jolliet (1673) Sieur (Robert) de La Salle (1682) Vitus Bering (1728-1741) Sir Alexander Mackenzie (1789) Pedro Alvarez Cabral (1500) Francisco Orellana (1541) Willem C. Schouten (1615) Juan Bautista de Anza (1736-1788) Sir Humphrey Gilbert (1539-1583) Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe (1683- September 26, 1765) Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) Eric the Red (986) Pedro Menendez de Aviles 2. Each group member should copy and paste this worksheet into Word so that you will have a place to record the information you all gather about each explorer. You will only have one worksheet in your folder, however, for your chosen explorer. Write in complete sentences with as much detail as you can.
Name ______________________
Explorer Information
Name of Explorer: __________________________________
Country Represented: __________________________________
Time of Exploration: ___________________________________
Why was the voyage undertaken? ____________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Challenges faced:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Evidence of Persistence and/or Risk-Taking:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
Results of Exploration:
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
3. Use the following websites to gather information about your explorer and the other explorers chosen by the other group members.
4. Now take the information on your worksheet to make a poster about your explorer. Refer to the poster rubric on the evaluation page to make sure that you include everything you should. 5. Click on the link that follows, and then copy and paste the blank map into SmartBoard software. Create a map showing the routes of your explorers, including places of departure and destination. Your map should include a title, a map key, country and territory names, and should be easily read by others. Perhaps each explorer's routes could be drawn in a different color or with a different kind of line. Each group member can use the same map, or you may chose to make individual maps. All of you should keep a copy of the map in your folder.
6. Now it is time to choose a project of your explorer. You need to chose one that will best help you illustrate your explorer, his purpose, and the results of his exploration. Here are your choices:
- Make a model of a ship an explorer might have used to travel to the New World. For your class presentation you could tell about the different parts of the ship and how you made the ship or you could tell about the different roles of the various crew members.
- Create a Newspaper Article that advertises for ship crew members to travel to the New World. Be sure to list the job requirements. Design your article to make the opportunity sound exciting and enticing as you present it to the class.
- Write a letter from the perspective of an explorer who is traveling to the New World. Describe your experiences, feelings, hope, worries and problems. Read your letter for your class presentation.
- Create 10 math story problems about explorers. Include fractions, decimals, time, or money in more than five of the problems. Turn in an answer sheet. Distribute the ten problems for the class to slove during your presentation. Be responsbile for checking the papers.
- Make a creative Web or Flow-Chart to visually depict all of the information explorers that your group studied. Be ready to explain your chart for the class presentation.
- Research and read about several common constellations used in naviagation by the explorers. Tell how the stars helped the explorers to determine direction, etc. Explain your findings for your class presentation.
- Create a Word Search using 30 vocabulary words that relate to exploration. Turn in an answer key on a separate sheet of paper. Use graph paper or a word processing program to help make a neat layout. Distribute the word search to the class for your presentation.
- Create a Game about "Sense of Smell" using different spices from the Far East. Have your classmates work in groups to try to determine the names of the spices by their smells for your presentation.
- Write and perform a skit about an explorer's journey to the New World. The performance must reflect knowledge of the actual event. Two to four people may be involved. The skit should not last longer than five minutes.
- Make up your own sea chantey or create new words for a familiar tune. Use vocabulary words from our Explorers Unit. Perform the song for the class in person or play it on CD player or from the Internet.
- Construct a realistic Salt Dough Model of the ocean travel routes to the New World. Be sure to make your project colorful and label the countries, oceans, and routes. Bring your map to display.
Refer to the project rubric on the evaluation page to view the criteria by which your project will be evaluated.
7. Now it is time to present your poster and project to the class. Remember, the class will decide whether your work will be included in the new museum wing.