Passport Project: Exploration
Essential Questions:
How did religious views affect the explorer’s interactions with the people of the country they explored?
How did the geography of the area explored influence the explorer’s exploration of the country?
How did this explorer’s colonization and exploitation of the country relate to the prestige of the explorer’s sending country?
How did the resources in this country affect the sending country’s future relationship with the country?
Description: You will create a display-type presentation about an explorer and one of the countries they explored. (We do NOT use the word “discovered”!)
Your end product will answer all of the Essential Questions, and will be presented in a walk-around format – half the class will be seated with your displays; the other half will visit the explorers and interview them. When the first half are finished, you will switch places and interview the remaining explorers.
Proof of the interviews will be recorded in a “passport”, which will include the names of all the explorers chosen by class members. Each interviewer must ask each explorer ALL the Essential Questions, and record your answers in your passports.
Procedure:
Day 1: 5/15 & 17: You will choose an explorer randomly by pulling a name out of a bowl. You will then choose one country your explorer visited to report on.
You must produce a display-type presentation about your explorer and the country you chose. This should include the following:
Answers to the essential questions!
Artifacts and descriptions should be carefully chosen to clearly answer the essential questions.
A picture of the explorer
A map of the route the explorer took from their sending country to the chosen country.
A DETAILED description of the native peoples of the country.
Pictures of the food, geographical features, and any other artifacts they would have encountered.
Descriptions of the habits of the natives that the explorer would have found interesting, or especially noteworthy.
Time line for work:
Wed/ Friday, 5/15 & 17 (Green/ White Days): Introduce the project, answer questions, start planning
You must present a work plan at the end of this day, including a goal for each day of work, for teacher approval.
Monday, 5/20 – Friday, 5/24: Work in class.
Tuesday and Wednesday 5/28 & 29: Finalize work
Thursday and Friday 5/30 & 31: complete passports as a class. THIS IS A HARD DEADLINE!! Half the class will interview, while the other half is the interviewee; switch half way through the class time.
Each student will receive a passport with one page for each explorer; passports will include half the number of pages as you in the class.
You will interview explorers by going around the room and filling in your passports.
When complete, you will hand in passports with your static presentations for your grades.
Rubric:
C1: Developing Questions and Planning Inquiries
Focus on Planning Inquiries
“Organize information and data from multiple primary and secondary sources”
Use the information and data to construct an informed conclusion
C4: Communicating Conclusions and Taking Informed Action
Focus on Communicating Conclusions
“Student is able to communicate the conclusions of others, and critique conclusions”