Famous Explorers' Cards - Teacher Page
A web quest for 5th grade Social Studies
Designed by Ben Rimes
Intro | Learners | Standards
Process | Resources | Evaluation | ConclusionThis web quest was created (and overhauled) thanks to some generous professional development through the Quincy Public Schools. It is an interdisciplinary task covering Language Arts, Social Studies, and Technology benchmarks from the state of Michigan's Benchmarks and Standards. The web quest takes the students through a short exploration of web resources as they create their own "Explorer Baseball Card."
This web quest was designed with fifth grade in mind, as early North American exploration is usually covered, and takes about 4 weeks to complete in a lab setting, meeting once a week for 30 minutes each time. It is covered in early to mid Fall, after the students have already had a chance to read about the explorers in their classrooms. The students should have a good grasp on web navigation as well as experience with Thinking Maps or Concept Maps in order to organize their thoughts. Basic understanding of Microsoft Word and Publisher is also necessary (setting up two columns, changing font color, size, shape, and spell checking).
At Jennings Elementary the web quest is carried out when the fifth grade class comes to the Technology Lab for computer time, but the task could easily be adapted for a classroom with larger groups or a longer time frame for completion.
This activity could easily be used at the secondary level as well for a U.S. or World History class. The resources would still be age appropriate, but the task might be tweaked to make it a bit more compelling to older students. A more "in depth" or complicated task, such as creating a journal about the explorer might be more appropriate.
Both teamwork and creative production skills are addressed in the task for this web quest. Some compromise might be involved with larger groups, but the focus is the creation of use-able study aid material in the form of a baseball card.
Michigan Standards:
Social Studies: Historical Perspective Standard 2
Recount the lives and characters of a variety of individuals from the past representing their local community, the state of Michigan and other parts of the United States.
Social Studies: Historical Perspective Standard 3
Compose simple narratives of events from the history of the state of Michigan and the United States.
English Language: Meaning & Communication Standard 3
Employ multiple strategies to construct meaning while reading, listening to, viewing, or creating texts.
English Language: Skills & Processes Standard 7
Develop and use a variety of strategies for planning, drafting, revising, and editing different forms of texts for specific purposes.
Technology: Using Information Technologies Standard 2
Retrieve and communicate information using a technological system.
This is a copy of the student's exact process. Additional notes provided for the educator are in blue and parenthesis.
1. Get an Explorer! Your teacher will give you one explorer to research from the list below. Your teacher will also give you a partner and some paper to help with your research. (Partnering a higher achieving student with a lower achieving student would be best as two students not proficient in computer skills or writing will often get stuck.)
2. Assign Jobs! There are two jobs that need to be carried out in order to complete this project successfully. It is up to your group to decide who does what job. They are listed with descriptions below: (If you are doing this in a classroom and not in a lab with plenty of available computers then groups of three or four might be better suited for the task. Using two computers each group could have 2 scribes, one responsible for the simple questions the other in charge of writing the paragraph about how the explorer impacted the new world. Two detectives would be needed for this as well.)
Scribe - The scribe is responsible for keeping a record of all the information gathered. Both members of the group will decide what information should be written down about their explorer, but it's up to the scribe to make sure it all gets written down so you can use it later for your card. The scribe is also responsible for creating the card on the computer once the information has been gathered.
Detective - The detective is responsible for finding the information about the explorer using the links below. Both members of the group will decide what information should be written down, but it's up to the detective to operate the computer and navigate the many web sites. The detective is also responsible for finding a picture of your explorer to use on the front of your baseball card.
3. Use your Hints! Once everyone in your group has a job, you need to research your explorer. Upper Deck knows all of the information in your text book so they need you to uncover other information using the web. They don't know how to use the internet as well as you or your teacher, so they've asked your teacher to give you some "hints" on where to find information. (Graphic organizers of any type can be used here as described in the Learners section. A simple Thinking Map called a bubble map with the Explorer in the middle and the information surrounding him was used in the lab, but a concept map could also be adapted. Simple brainstorming maps might be used as well.)
Hint #1: European Explorers Themes
Hint #2: Age of Exploration
Hint #3: Christopher Columbus and Other Explorers
Hint #4: The Mariners' Museum
Remember to find:
1. When was your explorer alive? (birth and death dates)
2. Where was your explorer born?
3. Which country sponsored your explorer?
4. Where was your explorer going?
5. How successful was your explorer?
6. A brief paragraph about how your explorer impacted both the New World and Europe.
7. How did your explorer meet his end? (how did he die?)Include any interesting stories or dangers that your explorer had to overcome.
4. Find a picture on one of the web sites of your explorer or create your own using Kid Pix. It's important to have one for the front of your card so Upper Deck has a complete rough draft. Your teacher can help you find a picture using Google if you can't find one on your own. (Using google to find images is quite simple. Go to www.google.com and then do a search for the explorer in question. When the results come up you can click on the word "images" on the very top of the page next to the google logo and the word "web." After finding a picture that suits the group click on it once and then again when it come up in it's own little window. When you have the picture by itself right click the image and choose "Save Image as..." and then save it to a disk you will have access to later.)
5. Use Microsoft Publisher or Word to create your "Explorer Card." Be creative with the way you present your information, making sure that all of the questions above are answered. It's up to you how it looks, what size the font is, what color, and how you write it. When done you should only need one piece of paper, with your picture on one side, and the information folded over on the back side.
Your teacher can help make the rough draft of your card look just right with the help of the school laminator. (Any educator attempting this web quest should be very proficient with using two columns in Word. The two columns are for the text and the picture. It doesn't matter whether the image is in the right or left column so long as the image and text are in separate columns. The same is true for using Publisher. After printing take the students' work and fold it in half and trim any excess paper from the bottom where the image and text stops. You can then laminate the paper creating a nice shiny "card" with the image on one side and the text on the other.)
This web quests requires that the students have already read about the explorers in their social studies texts. One educator can carry out the lesson for an average sized class of 25 students. The help of an aide is recommended for student questions or needs. Beyond that very little is required in terms of computer resources:
- Internet Access
- Any word processing software
- Kid Pix if a word processor isn't available
- One computer for each group OR shared computers
European Explorers Themes
Index of web sites for each explorer grouped by the country for which the explorers sailed.Age of Exploration
Index of web sites and essays about the explorers grouped by the country for which they explored. Content is more suited for older students.Christopher Columbus and Other Explorers
World Book entries for explorers including major achievements and dates of explorations.The Mariners' Museum
Short entries about the "Age of Exploration" placed in chronological order.Your teacher has given Upper Deck this grading scale called a rubric. It shows how many points your teacher will give you for each area. If you use lots of sources you will get four points, but fewer points if you don't answer all the questions as best you can.
Upper Deck will only use cards that have all fours so make sure to find as much information as possible and organize it so it's easy to read and makes sense.
Creativity Card is creative and information is presented clearly. Group member's names are on the card. Card is just a simple list of information. Group member's names on card. Card has no creativity. Group member's names are not on card. Little or no information on card. No group member's names on card. Baseball cards have been around for more than 50 years. Rock star cards, game cards, and even other sports cards haven't been around that long, but are very popular. Children use them everyday to learn about their favorite people or sports stars. While the Explorer Cards you created may not be as popular they can still be useful in helping to learn about the people that first explored the country we live in.
After completing this web quest your teacher hopes you have a better understanding of the lives of famous European explorers. You also have a new way to learn about new subjects. Using the internet, computers, and even your text books, you can create cards, posters, even new books of your own, to help yourself and others learn.
