Download Egg Fact Slips

Lesson Plan – Age of Exploration
Class Description:
This class is a 7th grade, Gifted and Talented, Social Studies class. It is made up mostly of highly
intelligent and highly motivated students. About three of the students in the class are not as motivated
as others. Two of the students do not have the higher ability level that the other students do. They try
very hard, but work more slowly and do not always complete assignments. One student in this class has
an IEP, but that is for color blindness, so it rarely impacts our lessons.
Unit Title: Europe
Lesson Topic: Age of Exploration
Standards:
Students will analyze the developments of the Renaissance in order to assess their impact on science
technology art and politics.
Judges Prior Knowledge: We have been discussing Europe since the Middle Ages and over time I have
seen what students know about the topic, and have been able to assess their knowledge of this time
period in European history.
Lesson Objective:
Students will be able to discuss well known explorers in order to draw conclusions about the risks and
benefits of voyages during the Age of Exploration.
Assessment:
As the class works I will circulate the room in order to assess the students for completion and accuracy.
This is a formative assessment that is performance based. I will use this assessment as a way to continue
to keep students on track and so that I can see right away if someone needs help.
At the end of class the students will complete a short writing assignment. "Imagine you are an adviser to
a European king in the 1500's. The rulers of several other countries have sent explorers to search for
new trade routes. Your king doesn’t want to fall behind. Now a young sea captain has come to the royal
court with a daring plan. The king is interested. What would you advise the king to do? Make sure that
you use information you used today about this time period to support your answer.” This assessment
will show whether or not students truly understood the information that they learned in class, and allow
them to be creative with their writing.
Materials:
1. Eggs
2. Fact slips
3. Worksheet
4. Elmo
Adaptation:
No adaptation needed for my IEP student.
Incorporation of Technology:
I will use the Elmo to allow me to offer a visual as I go over the worksheet with the class.
Drill
This is the first lesson after coming back from break so I will ask
3-5 Minutes
What were some of the big changes that were happening in the Middle
Ages that we discussed before break?
Transition
Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 3
Assessment
Summary
As a way to remind students what we learned and then link that to our
lesson.
As changes occurred in science and philosophy, people began to be
curious about the world around them. People in Europe wanted to travel
in search of new land, and riches. Today we’re going to have our own
search for riches. We’re going to have our own search for riches today.
Count off to put students into groups of 4. Groups will have 5 minutes to
go together around the room to search for eggs. Each egg contains
information about explorers and the voyages that they went on.
Whichever group collects the most eggs will win Jolly Ranchers.
Now read through your information as a group and answer the questions
using the information that you have. We will then go over the worksheet
together so that we can puzzle together the information.
Go over the worksheet to puzzle together the information and to make
sure that everyone gets the information that they need. We will also
discuss the questions as we go along.
"Imagine you are an adviser to a European king in the 1500's. The rulers
of several other countries have sent explorers to search for new trade
routes. Your king doesn’t want to fall behind. Now a young sea captain
has come to the royal court with a daring plan. The king is interested.
What would you advise the king to do? Make sure that you use
information you used today about this time period to support your
answer.”
Today we talked about the Age of Exploration. We had our own search for
knowledge and worked together to find information about this time. We
talked about new inventions and discoveries that made travel easier. We
also talked about some of the reasons that these voyagers and the royals
that backed them, may want to risk everything for these voyages. As a
class, the majority said that they would send the sea captain because the
rewards would outweigh the risk. Does anyone have any questions at this
point?
1 Minute
5 Minutes
10 Minutes
12 Minutes
10 Minutes
3 Minutes
Safety Valve
Ask students how many chose to send the captain and ask for some
reasons why.
Reflection:
My students responded well to this lesson and gave amazing written responses for their exit ticket.
Some even write the exit ticket as though it was a letter to their king responding to his request. I was
very impressed by the amount that they learned from this exercise and the amount of detail and
creativity they were able to include in their writing.
Name:____________________________________ Date:_________________ Mod:________________
Age of
Discovery
What were some of the main events, discoveries, and inventions that led to the Age of Discovery?
Why did people want to go on voyages?
What were the main countries involved in these voyages?
Who were some other explorers? What were their accomplishments?
Where did the European explorers want to go? Why?
Name of Region
Reason for
wanting to travel
to the region
Describe Columbus’s voyage to America.
Date
Country
What was he trying to do?
Further Thinking: How did the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment help to pave the way for this
focus on exploration?
Name:_____________________________________ Date: __________________ Mod:____________
Age of Exploration Exit Ticket
Imagine you are an adviser to a European king in the 1500's. The rulers of several other countries have
sent explorers to search for new trade routes. Your king doesn’t want to fall behind. Now a young sea
captain has come to the royal court with a daring plan. The king is interested. What would you advise
the king to do? Make sure that you use information you used today about this time period to support
your answer.
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Egg Fact Slips
1. Some advances in science and technology enabled people to make longer,
safer sea voyages. New compasses helped sailors figure out where they
were.
2. Improvements in mapmaking helped people plan safer routes for their
journeys.
3. New ships, called Caravels, made sea travel safer and could travel farther
then older ships could.
4. Some explorers were curious about the unknown. They hoped to find out
what lay beyond the horizon.
5. Some explorers were looking for adventure and excitement.
6. Some explorers wanted to spread the Christian faith.
7. Some explorers wanted to get rich and find treasure.
8. Leaders encouraged these voyages because they thought that it might benefit
their countries through increased trade and wealth.
9. Explorers from Europe began to search for an all water route to Asia so that
they could get goods from China and India.
10. Silks and spices could be found in Asia, but not in Europe.
11. The first explorers to search for a sea route to Asia were from Portugal.
12. In 1497-1498 a Portuguese explorer named Vasco da Gama sailed around
the southern tip of Africa and on to the west coast of India.
13. In 1492 Queen Isabella of Spain helped pay for a voyage led by Christopher
Columbus.
14.Christopher Columbus hoped to reach Asia by sailing west across the
Atlantic.
15. Columbus thought he had found a route to Asia, which Europeans called the
Indies. Europeans came to realize that he had reached a land unknown to
them.
16. When it was first discovered Europeans referred to the Americas as the
“New Land.”
17. Once America was discovered explorers set out from Europe to learn more
about the new land.
18. Explorers from Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands set
off to explore North and South America.
19. Some explorers went to the Americas in search of the best water route to
Asia.
20. Some explorers went to the Americas in search of riches. They heard that
native people of the Americas had a lot of gold.
21. Some explorers wanted to conquer the lands and the people of the
Americas.
22. Prince Henry of Portugal was also known as Henry the Navigator.
23. Henry the Navigator founded a school for sailors, where they could study
geography and astronomy. They learned from experienced sea captains and
mapmakers from all over Europe.
24. Henry the Navigator believed that there was a faster and less expensive way
to travel to Asia. He was determined to find an all water route from Europe
to Asia. He thought that the best way would be to travel around the southern
tip of Africa.
25. Vasco de Gama was the commander of the first fleet to sail around Africa
and make it to the coast of India.
26.Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailor, was the first person to try to
circumnavigate, or travel all the way around the Earth. His crew made it
around the world, but he was killed in the Philippines in a conflict with the
natives.