Bear Exploration Center
Magnet Curriculum
2025-2026
5th Grade
Virtual Trip to Jamestown Fort
Forster
5th Grade
Virtual Trip to Jamestown Fort
Forster
Grade Level -5th
Content Area- ELA and US History
Standard:
ELA Standard 26: Analyze how two or more texts address similar topics in diverse media and formats, including graphics, live and/or recorded performances, and written works. It includes:
a. Explain how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the overall meaning and tone of a text.
Social Studies Standard 5.3 The Alabama Grade 5 social studies standards include content like: locating on maps physical features that impacted exploration/settlement, understanding cause & effect of migration/settlement, distinguishing differences among Native American cultures, explaining colonization, colonists’ government, the American Revolution, westward expansion,
Measurement & Scale : Students can explore the scale of historical architecture (e.g., pyramids, cathedrals) and calculate distances, proportions, or structural integrity.
Systems and System Models: Students can examine how civilizations functioned as systems — economy, infrastructure, environment — mirrored in VR simulations.
Directions:
Objective: We will use VR to take students into a virtual landscape (colonial Jamestown) of early settlement (rivers, mountains, winds) and have them identify features, explain how the geography influenced settlement decisions. After VR exploration, students could gather evidence from the virtual world (maps, settlements, resources), discuss “why did this community succeed/fail?”, write or present conclusions.
Directions:
1. Introduction (10-15 minutes)
Review the standard 5-D.7: talk about how physical features (rivers, mountains, forests) impacted settlement.
Introduce the VR experience: explain how they will “enter” a settlement environment, observe, and record how geography influenced what happened.
2. VR Exploration (25 minutes)
Students put on headsets and explore the historical scenario. While in VR, students focus on:
identifying geographic/physical features (rivers, harbors, mountains, forests)
noting how these features might support or hinder settlement
observing any visible settlement/resource decisions (where buildings are placed, how transport/roads might exist)
3. Whole Group Discussion (15 minutes)
Bring class back together: ask students to share what features they observed and how they think these features influenced settlement or migration.
Pose guiding questions: “If the settlement had been on the other side of the river, how might things be different? What about if there was no forest nearby?”
Guidelines: VR set (e.g., headset + compatible software) that presents a historical scenario of colonial Jamestown. A worksheet or digital document for students to record observations: geography features, resource access, settlement decisions, cause/effect. Map of the region (physical/digital) for orientation
Seen below are the students using the VR Headsets to Jamestown colony.