During this unit, students will learn about three developments that enabled European exploration – the Renaissance, printing press, and Prince Henry’s navigational school. Students will engage in a debate defending the significance of one of the developments. Students will examine the 3 G’s motivating European exploration – God, Gold and Glory – through guided notes and three primary sources. Students will take a stand on which G was the most important, and support their stand with evidence. At the end of the section, students will view historical European maps to see how the European understanding of the world changed over time.

Students will learn about the positive and negative effects of the Columbian Exchange through activities, textbook readings and a video. Students will learn about Columbus’s background and the effects of his voyages. Students will create a poster or a written response to demonstrate their learning.

Students will use historical thinking skills to evaluate primary documents related to the framing question through a lesson developed by Stanford History Education Group. Using the first meeting of the Spanish and the Inca as the focal point, students will evaluate barriers that existed between the conquistadors and native peoples when the old and new world collided. As a preview, students will predict what happened at the first meeting of the Spanish and Inca through a script in order to illustrate an answer to the framing question.

Finally, students will be introduced to the advances made within maritime exploration during the 15th century. Students will begin thinking about how conditions were right for some countries to explore (China) and not right for others (Japan). Although the Chinese did not connect the continents of the Eastern and Western hemispheres, their capacity to travel and explore the seas was far above that of Europe when Chinese Admiral Zheng He commanded seven expeditions stretching from Asia to Africa. Students will learn about China’s efforts through a 14th century map, secondary source reading, teacher-guided lecture, short video clip, and a primary document.

Who were China's first explorers

Examine the Treasure Fleets

Analyze why people explored in the first place

How did Portugal become a world sea power

Analyze the Conquest of Mexico

Create Your Own Country

How did we explore other parts of our universe?

Examine the Columbian Exchange

What does Mexico look like today?

Quiz

*Note that most of these will show up throughout the unit, but some may not, and some may be introduced.