OverviewDuring this module, students will take what they know about landforms and explorers to create a landscape using the Minecraft-like app ‘Exploration’. After creating their own landscape and building to explore they will take turns exploring each other’s landscapes making notes and drawing diagrams in their exploration journals to describe this new place. Students will be engaging with a variety of media to learn about the explorations of early settlers.
Goals
ObjectivesStudents will:
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Day 1
Subject: Social Studies/Science
Topic: Exploring New Worlds
Activities:
Strategies: blended learning, problem solving, concept mapping, simulations, game-based learning, role playing, model building, computer assisted instruction, discussion
Topic: Exploring New Worlds
Activities:
- Review landforms, explorers qualities and reasons for exploration
- Tell students that they are going to create a new world for their friend to explore
- Talk about how early explorers would often go to new places with no map, and need to make observations, recording their findings
- Students will spend 30 minutes creating a new world using the ‘Exploration’ app, followed by spending the next 20 minutes exploring a peers world, and using their observation journal to post screen shots, draw pictures, and write observations like a new explorer
- This will be modelled by hooking one of the iPads up to the data projector to explore one world as a class
- Exploration app
- Exploration journal
- iPads
- Data Projector
- Anchor charts from module 1
Strategies: blended learning, problem solving, concept mapping, simulations, game-based learning, role playing, model building, computer assisted instruction, discussion
Day 2
Subject: Social Studies/Geography
Topic: Early Explorers
Activities:
Strategies: blended learning, role play, game-based learning, collaborative learning, simulations, concept mapping, problem solving, brainstorming
Topic: Early Explorers
Activities:
- Flipped learning – Students will watch the ‘Christopher Columbus’ movie (Mondo World, 2014)
- As a class, discuss the story of Christopher Columbus, Comparing and contrasting similarities and differences between the movie and ‘You Wouldn’t Want to Sail with Christopher Columbus’ (MacDonald, 2014)
- In small groups, students will be told that they will be playing the role of Christopher Columbus. Have them organize the expedition, listing money, crew members, tools, food, jobs, and any other important information. Have them share this with the class.
- Students will begin to play ‘European Exploration’ using the app on their iPad
- “The app lets kids to role play as 15th Century captains responsible for exploring the world. The goal of the game is to discover the entire New World. In the game, kids are in charge of everything from hiring a crew, to building the ships, to planning the trip, to manage the finances of their expeditions. Through play, kids gain historical knowledge about various locations around the world. While choosing explorers for the crew, kids are presented with historical information about the explorers that are available to lead expeditions, such as Giovanni da Verrazano, Christopher Columbus, and Juan Ponce de Leon. Each explorer has a grade based on his navigation, cartography, and shipkeeping skills. Each explorer also has a different salary, and this goes into budgeting and finance planning of the game. When ships and crew are ready, kids have to draw expedition maps and then send out their explorers. They will bring money back if the expedition is successful, they can then manage more expeditions and even be able to send out several ships simultaneously.” (iGame Mom, 2016)
- European Exploration app
- iPads
- ‘Christopher Columbus’ movie (Mondo World, 2014)
- Chart paper
- Markers
- Exploration Journal
Strategies: blended learning, role play, game-based learning, collaborative learning, simulations, concept mapping, problem solving, brainstorming
Day 3
Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Early Explorations
Activities:
Strategies: blended learning, demonstrations, problem solving, inquiry, reflective discussion, concept formation, experiential learning, role playing, game-based learning, presentations
Topic: Early Explorations
Activities:
- As a class, we will plug in a selection of students iPad and have them present what they have learned so far/where they have travelled using the European explorers app
- Students will have the day to continue using the app to explore
- The last 15 minutes will be spent writing a journal entry as their explorer from the game, reflecting on his/her explorations so far
- European Exploration app
- iPads
- Exploration journal
Strategies: blended learning, demonstrations, problem solving, inquiry, reflective discussion, concept formation, experiential learning, role playing, game-based learning, presentations
Day 4
Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Mapping out a journey
Activities:
Strategies: structured overview, inquiry, concept mapping, simulations, focused imaging, model building, research projects, brain storming, cooperative learning, digital learning (augmented reality)
Topic: Mapping out a journey
Activities:
- Students will watch ‘The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook' (CrashCourse, 2012)
- Discuss some of the tragic things that happened to natives during explorations like Cook’s and Columbus’.
- Simulation Game - the students will participate in a simulation game in which half of them are treated as a group of Native Americans who already inhabit the Americas, while the others are treated as the explorers who have come to the Americas to inhabit new lands (Stafford & Daniels, 2016). Students will write a diary entry as both an explorer and a native.
- Students will use books and the internet to research the route of one of Captain Cook’s expeditions. They will use My Maps to recreate the route of an explorer adding interesting details about their journey (McCloskey, 2015)
- Students have used My Maps in the past.
- iPads
- My Maps
- Computer lab
- My Maps Rubric (McCloskey, 2015)
- ‘The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook' (CrashCourse, 2012)
Strategies: structured overview, inquiry, concept mapping, simulations, focused imaging, model building, research projects, brain storming, cooperative learning, digital learning (augmented reality)
Day 5
Subject: Social Studies
Topic: Mapping out a journey/how exploration has changed over time
Activities:
Topic: Mapping out a journey/how exploration has changed over time
Activities:
- Students will complete their My Maps
- After researching and plotting their points and information on their My Map, students will discuss and work collaboratively to create a list in their exploration journals about the ways that exploration has changed over time focusing on tools, motivations, time, cost, disease, and any other topics of interest.
- My Maps
- Computer lab
- Exploration journals
Assessment
The exploration journals will be used as both reflection portfolios and learning response logs throughout the Explorers unit. Students will write a reflection for their work in their journal at the end of each week, self-assessing their work. Anecdotal notes will be taken as a form of ongoing formative assessment of observations, questioning, presentations and discussions. These will be written on post it notes attached to each students unit of inquiry (UOI) rubric. They will then be translated onto the rubric at the end of the unit. Formative feedback is essential to for students to guide their instruction throughout the unit. This week, the My Maps project will be teacher and self assessed using the rubrics below.