Themes:  Location
      Place
      Movement

National Geography Standards:
 1,2 – Location, Spatial Organization
 4,6 – Places and Regions
 9, 11 – Human Systems

State Geography Standard:
 7, 8, 9 – Physical Spaces of the Earth/Effects of Geography

Background:
 This is a lesson taken from a unit on Explorers.  The first lesson would be built around the students choosing a place on the earth they would like to explore, now or would like to have explored in the past.  They would then write a paragraph describing when, where and why they chose that particular place.  It would then be placed on a bulletin board surrounding a map of the world.  Then, the students would use yarn to connect their paragraphs to the matching location on the map.

Objectives:  The students will be able to:
 1.) Identify where the explorers traveled to and from.
 2.) Explain why the explorers traveled.
 3.) Make a Navigator’s Quadrant and demonstrate its purpose.

Materials:
1.) A Map of Explorer’s Route and worksheet with directions
2.) A 4x6 inch piece of cardboard
3.) 15 inch length of yarn or string
4.) Strong tape
5.) Protractor
6.) Pencil
7.) Small, heavy rock

Procedure:
1.) Begin to talk about early explorers and brainstorm why they chose to travel east.  Read the first chapter of the “Explorers” book and discuss what areas they came from and why.  Then read from “All About Explorers” handout and ask the following questions to check for understanding.
a. What work means to travel around the world by water?  (circumnavigate)
b. About 440 years ago, merchants traveled __________ to reach Asia (East).
c. What were the explorers looking for in the late 1400’s?  They were looking for _________.   (An all water route to Asia)
d. In which direction did Christopher Columbus sail?  Can someone show me on the map?  (West)
e. Balboa discovered the _______ Ocean (Pacific).
f.   What island did Magellan sail from when going around the tip of Africa?  (Philippine Islands)
2.) Pass out the map of the Explorer’s Routes and have students label the map.  Discuss what they have learned and how difficult it mist have been to navigate the waters.  Talk about the myth of sea monsters, etc.
3.) Explain how early sea explorers used their knowledge of astronomy to help them navigate Polaris, or the North Pole.  By measuring the height to the North Star at night, a sailor, north of the equator could calculate his approximate latitude.  A Quadrant was an instrument that helped them to do that.  Columbus and others used this before other, more precise instruments were developed.

How to Make a Navigator’s Quadrant:
1.) On the piece of cardboard, draw a star in the top right hand corner of the cardboard and an eye in the top left corner.
2.) Center your protractor in the star corner with the 0 degree line even with the right side and the 90 degree line even with the top edge.  Trace an arc along the outside edge of the protractor.  Then mark off points every 5 degrees, from 0 degrees to 90 degrees.
3.) Tie a rock to one end of the yarn.  Tape the other end of yarn to the star corner.

How to use a Navigator’s Quadrant:
1.) Find the North Star in the sky on a dark clear night (we will look at the star in the room).
2.) Look at the star, aligning your eye and the star alongside the top edge of the quadrant.
3.) Let the yarn hang down until it stops moving.  Hold it in place and read the degree measurement.  This is your approximate latitude.

As a homework assignment, have them do this at home and the next day compare their results with a map.

Extensions:  Refer to Geography Wizardry for Kids – Pages 29 – 56.  There are some great ideas and projects to enhance this skill.
 All About Early Explorers

 Over four hundred years ago, European merchants traveled east by land and sea to trade with merchants in Asia.  These Europeans traded woolen goods, silver, gold, tin, and leather goods for spices, jewels, and silk materials from Asia.  The trade routes were very difficult, dangerous, and expensive to use.  It could take many months , and sometimes – even years for a box of spices to travel from Asia to Europe.

 In the late 1400’s people dreamed of discovering an all water route between Europe and Asia.  Most explorers of the time believed the best route would be to travel around the tip of Africa and then eastward to Asia.

 Christopher Columbus, knowing the world was round, began sailing westward.  Instead of reaching Asia, Columbus landed on the coast of an unknown New World we call North America.

 After Columbus died, a Spanish explorer named Balboa followed the western route and discovered the “great south sea” that we know as the Pacific Ocean.

 In 1519, another Spanish explorer named Magellan began a journey that was one of the greatest voyages in history.  Sailing from Spain, he traveled around the tip of South America and across the Pacific Ocean.  From the Philippine Islands, Magellan sailed around the tip of Africa and returned to Spain in 1522.  Magellan did what no one else had ever done before.  He circumnavigated the world!

 In the years that followed the discovery of the New World, other daring men from Spain, Portugal, England, the Netherlands, and France began to explore and claim these lands for their own countries.  As time passed, settlers came to the New World and established the first colonies in North America.
 Name:  ______________

Explorers’ Routes
On the next page you will find a map of the world.  Read the instructions and complete the explorers’ map.
 
 

Label these continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Antarctica, and Australia.  Color the continents green.

Label these oceans:  Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Indian Ocean.  Color these water areas blue on your map.

The -------- lines on the map represent early trade routes on land and sea that were used to travel between Europe and Asia.  Trace over the lines.

The           lines on the map show how Christopher Columbus sailed westward to discover North America.  Trace over the     lines across the Atlantic Ocean to North America.
 

The            lines on the map represent the exploration of Vasco de Balboa and his discovery of the Pacific Ocean.  Trace over the   lines.

The          lines on your map show the famous journey made by Ferdinand Magellan as he circumnavigated the world.  Trace over the   and follow his journey across the Atlantic Ocean, around South America, across the Pacific Ocean.  Return to the right side of the map and continue to follow the across the Indian Ocean, around Africa, and back to Europe.