Lesson Overview:

Students will discuss the concept of exploration. They will research a world explorer and prepare maps of the routes traveled. Students will create a papier-mache map to represent the explorer’s journey.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute periods

Notes:

This lesson is particularly suitable for grade 5.

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• discuss the concept of exploration.
• locate information and specific facts on a pre-assigned famous explorer.
• learn about the route traveled by the explorer.
• create a map that represents the route traveled by the explorer.

Supplies:

• Colored pencils, markers, or paints
• Globe
• Graph paper
• Notebook paper
• Poster board or heavy paper
• World map

Instructional Plan:

Introduction to Lesson

Ask students how they find their way around an unfamiliar place (a new neighborhood, a shopping mall, a school building, etc.). Elicit that maps help people to find their way through unfamiliar territory. Point out that we use maps today to help us drive to new destinations. If possible, show the students the Mapquest Web site and demonstrate making a map from the school to another location, such as a student’s home.

Ask students what would happen if no map existed of a large area (whether it be a neighborhood, a state, or a body of water). Ask them to consider whether they would venture out into uncharted territory.

Tell students that throughout history, certain individuals have gone into areas that had not been mapped or surveyed by anyone else in their culture. Define the word "explorer" and review the Vocabulary Handout.

Explain that explorers did not know what, or who, they might find on their journeys. Still, they were motivated to set out across vast expanses. Explain that explorers had many motivations for their endeavors: searching for riches, a desire for adventure, nationalism, etc. Through their efforts, they discovered things about the world that had been previously unknown to their societies. (Emphasize that many explorers were not the first people to "discover" an area. In many cases, the lands were already inhabited by people. However, these explorers made their own societies aware of previously unknown areas civilizations for the first time.)

Tell the students that they will each learn about an explorer’s journey. They will research information about the explorer, and then create a map of the explorer’s journey. Remind the students that these journeys were undertaken with few, if any, accurate maps.

Distribute the List of Explorers, and review it with the class. Assign each student an explorer. Tell them that they will research that person and his journey, and construct a map of the area that the explorer traveled.

Have students conduct print and Web research to answer the Research Questions. Suggest the following Web sites:

World Book: Columbus and other New World Explorers
http://www2.worldbook.com/features/features.asp?feature=explorers&page=html/newworld.html&direct=yes

Library of Congress: Discovery and Exploration
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/dsxphome.html

Have students use world maps and the globe to track the courses that traveled by their explorers, noting again that explorers did not have these maps.

Explorers had to document their journeys carefully and accurately so that they, or others, could replicate their paths. Therefore, explorers not only had to trace their route, but also identify "markers" along the way, such as landforms, bodies of water, topography, etc. Tell the students that their task is to create a three-dimensional map to represent the explorer’s journey as accurately as possible. (Note: If explorers made more than one journey, students should choose only one to represent on the map.) Explain that they will be using a technique called papier-mache to create the maps.

Students should find and print, or photocopy, maps to use for reference when they make their papier-mache map of the explorers' journeys. Since the maps must include topographic features, students should have at least one relief map. Maps can be found at:

Xpeditions
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html

National Geographic Map Machine
http://plasma.nationalgeographic.com/mapmachine/index.html

Papier-mache Mapmaking

Tell the students that they will construct three-dimensional maps of the routes traveled by the explorers they are studying. (Note: Have all art supplies ready at the start of the lesson.)

After examining maps charting the locations and routes their explorers traveled, students should draw their maps on large sheets of graph paper. This is a good opportunity to discuss the importance of scale.

Explain that scale is the proportion between two sets of dimensions. For example, if a sketch is drawn to scale, all of its parts are equally smaller or larger than the parts in the original picture. Note that scale is essential to creating accurate representations of drawings, sketches, and dimensional objects.

Review the Making a Papier-Mache Map Handout. Assist the students with organization of materials they will need for their map. Students should come prepared with maps showing where their explorers traveled.

All maps should show the routes traveled by their explorers. Students should clearly identify the routes with a special color or three-dimensional features. Students may add features such as drawings of boats, ships, animals, people, or other items that help to suggest the periods in which their explorers made their journeys. Note: This project may take two days to complete since it takes time for the papier-mache to dry completely.

Assessment:

Collect the handouts and assess the degree to which the students answered the questions accurately and fully. Evaluate the maps based on accuracy of scale and general creativity.

Extensions:

Ask students to consider what it would be like to be an explorer. Have them write three diary entries in the voices of their explorers. The first entry should be on a day at the beginning of the journey, the second should be in the middle of the journey, and the third should be shortly after the explorer reached his destination.

Sources:

Print:

• Ciovacco, J. The Encyclopedia of Explorers and Adventurers. Franklin Watts, Inc., March 2003.
• Fritz, A. Around the World in a Hundred Years. Penguin Putnam Books, 2001.
• Fritz, A. Can’t You Make Them Behave, King George? Penquin Putnam Books, Sept. 1996.
• Fritz, A. et al. Who’s Stepping on Plymouth Rock? Penguin Putnam Books, Sept. 1998.
• Sansevere-Dreher, D. et al. Explorers Who Got Lost. San Francisco, Traveler’s Tales, 2002.

Software:

• 2003 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition, Scholastic Inc., New York, NY
• Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 Deluxe Edition
• Eyewitness World Atlas
• Microsoft Encarta 2003, Microsoft, Inc., U.S.A.
• National Geographic Mapmaker

Authors:

• Rebecca Holden, Educator
  Virginia Beach, VA