Travel and Explore

By:
Meg OGrady and Chrissy Szajna

Personally Real?
We are passionate about traveling.
When Europeans came to North
America, they brought European
cultures and traditions.
Every person has traveled near
(drive/walk to school) or far (flown
around the world) and can relate to
traveling from one place to another.

More Personal Realness

We have learned about Columbus
explorations, and we would like
to travel across the Atlantic as he
did.
Money is a factor in everyones
life, and learning to budget is
important.

Activities
Students would take on the role of an explorer from the 1400s.
In groups, they will budget, plan, and travel across the Atlantic
Ocean from Europe to North America. The students will move
across the Atlantic by confronting various scenarios.
The students will buy a boat, medicine, clothing, food, water,
etc. and view a map to decide where they will depart and arrive
(from Europe/ to North America).
The students will gain degrees of latitude and longitude
depending upon their performance in scenarios/ challenges.
An example of a scenario/challenge would be a Jeopardy game
about Christopher Columbus and his era after they have
studied and read about him.
The students will also keep a journal of things that the crew
encounters, including weather storms and illnesses, or lack of
food.

More Activities
After the students have studied exploration from Europe to
North America and have accumulated enough points (they
will move x degrees latitude or longitude for x amount of
points received from each activity) to complete their journey,
they will describe life when they reach North America.
Then, they will create and plan a vacation that they would
like to take. They can go anywhere on Earth! They will be
given a certain amount of money in order to budget their
spending. They will need to consider transportation,
housing, spending money, food, entertainment costs, and
necessities that they would need to bring. They will
complete a brochure about their vacation; they will include
what they did, where they went, and the budget.

Core Concepts
Geography: Students will travel from Europe to
North America over a 5-week unit. The students will
decide where they will depart (from Europe) and
where they will arrive (in North America). They will
need to have a proper understanding of latitude and
longitude. The students will also need to have
knowledge about European explorers and the time
periods in which they explored North America.
Science: Students will encounter various weather
conditions during their trips. They will need to be
aware of how to handle this in the middle of the
ocean. They will also need to discuss weather
during their own vacation trips.

Core Concepts, Continued

Math: Students will budget money in order to
fund a trip from Europe to North America. What
supplies are necessities? The students will also
need to calculate latitude and longitude degrees.
Reading/Writing: The students will read books
about explorers and will refer back to them while
earning points during historical quizzes/ game
shows and simulations. The students will need to
complete writing activities throughout the project
on various topics, including a journal about their
trip to North America and their vacation. The
students will also create a brochure.

Incorporating Interests and Prior

Experiences
The students will be able to choose a particular personal
destination for their own vacation. Every person has
experience traveling, near or perhaps far.
The students will use their prior weather experience to
describe weather on their journey to America, as well as
their vacation destination.
The students will choose to include some of their special
interests during their vacations, and they will share their
interests with the class in their brochures.
The students have experienced handling money and
adding and subtracting. This will be useful when they
need to budget and add and subtract latitude and
longitude degrees.

Active/Doing Based Activities

The students will check the weather on the
ocean weather website and discuss how they
would react to the weather at the time.
The students will buy materials and supplies
for their trips and will create a budget.
The students will keep a journal of events that
occur along the journey and weather events
that may delay the journey (role-playing).
The students will create a brochure for the
vacation of their choice.

Connections
Geography: Students will travel from Europe to North America over a 5week unit. The students will decide where they will depart (from Europe)
and where they will arrive (in North America). They will need to have a
proper understanding of latitude and longitude. The students will also need
to have knowledge about European explorers and the time periods in
which they explored North America.
Science: Students will encounter various weather conditions during their
trips. They will need to be aware of how to handle this in the middle of the
ocean. They will also need to discuss weather during their own vacation
trips.
Math: Students will budget money in order to fund a trip from Europe to
North America. What supplies are necessities? The students will also need
to calculate latitude and longitude degrees.
Reading/Writing: The students will read books about explorers and will refer
back to them while earning points during historical quizzes/ game shows and
simulations. The students will need to complete writing activities throughout
the project on various topics, including a journal about their trip to North
America and their vacation. The students will also create a brochure.

Student Control
Each student will have a role in the
groups.
Each student will be responsible for his or
her role.
As a group, the students will need to work
together in order to create a creative
atmosphere and working relationship.
If they work well together, they will be
able to complete the journey across the
Atlantic quickly and earn a prize/reward!

Technology
Technology is an important part of our framework. We will
use teacher resources when planning the unit. We will also
use several resources as data sources and sense-making
sources. Technology will also be used when the students
create their brochures using Microsoft word or publisher.
The students will buy a boat online at
http://www.boats-for-sale.com/Ocean-boats.html
The students view the real-time weather on the Atlantic
Ocean at http://www.oceanweather.com/data
Two sites that include wonderful lesson plan ideas for
explorers and other social studies activities:
http://score.rims.k12.ca.us/grade5/index.html
http://members.aol.com/DonnWorld/Columbus.html - To
p

Access
Travel is something that everyone knows about or
wants to do.
For example, a student may have seen a movie
with a surfer from Australia in it and may want
to travel to Australia to try to surf.
Buying items and spending money is a common
idea that most students will have a connection to.
Example: A child may receive an allowance
each week and decide how to spend it. They
can use the money that the teacher has allowed
them to purchase the necessities for their trip.