This site challenges students to think critically about topics like: "What kinds of people choose a life of exploration, challenge and discovery? What do you think are the most important characteristics of explorers?" Explore the Biography Maker, which guides students through the stages of questioning, learning, synthesis, and story-telling, plus six traits of effective writing.
Twelve activities to complement the study of exploration, including topics such as Create a Compass, What Would You Take to Sea, and many more.
Lesson plans and activities to go with a unit on explorers.
The curriculum guide that accompanies The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery site.
Lessons that accompany the PBS Lewis and Clark site..."Each lesson includes Teacher Notes and downloadable Student Activity Sheets that can be printed, copied, and distributed to students. The Teacher Notes for each lesson provide learning objectives, related national content standards, a list of tools and materials needed, the time necessary to complete each lesson, extensions and adaptations, assessment recommendations, and the teaching strategy."
This very high-quality ThinkQuest created by students provides biographies of 28 explorers; a timeline; a section on navigation through the centuries, including how to use maps and compasses; and Why Explore, a section that asks students to consider the reasons behind exploration, then and now. A few lesson ideas are also included.
This complex site explores four geographical areas of the Americas, the cultures of the people who lived there prior to European discovery, the history of the Conquistadors in each area, and the legacy exploration left behind. This site would be great for students who are passionate about the subject and who find the more difficult text manageable. The interactive timelines of events and disease are worth sharing with everyone. Lesson plans are also included.
From the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, this comprehensive site offers a virtual tour of a museum exhibit of Viking artifacts and an interactive look at the Viking Voyage. The Viking Voyage includes short audio and video clips, an interactive map, and quite detailed historical interpretations. The amount and difficulty of the material make this wonderful resource best used piecemeal or as an enrichment activity. Also includes a teacher's guide with games and activities (found under the Learning Center tab.)
Enchanted Learning offers very short biographies, some with simple graphics. Useful for differentiation.
For students who are interested in more recent explorers, or exploration of a different nature, this site offers a starting point for people like Robert Ballard (discoverer of the wreck of the Titanic), Meave and Louise Leakey (paleoanthropologists), and Jane Goodall (naturalist, animal behavorialist).
This presentation from the Library of Congress uses images of original maps to show how the representation of the "New World" changed over time. Students may be interested to learn that California was once thought to be an island, for example. Requires the Flash player.
The Library of Congress presents this collection of maps from the Age of Discovery, along with a graphic organizer students can use to analyze them.
" Designed for high school and college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history." This is a huge archive that teachers could use to guide students to other interesting resources.