The Most Famous Explorer?

Christopher Columbus discovered "America" on October 12, 1492. He is arguably the most famous explorer in history. He was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. As a young man, he settled in Portugal and married a woman of noble background. After his wife's death in 1485, Columbus and his young son Diego moved to Spain.

It was there that he was able to learn more about geography and navigation and convince King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella finance his quest to create a new trade route to India and the Far East to bring back their spices, silk, and gold. He successfully argued that the new trade route would be shorter and less costly and hazardous than the existing sea and overland routes.

The fifteenth-century Europeans were not aware of the South and North American continents during this timeframe. Mapmakers did not show an accurate picture and no one knew there was a Pacific Ocean. However, like some learned men of his time, Columbus knew the world was round. He theorized that since the earth was a sphere, a ship could eventually reach the Far East by travelling west, in the opposite direction.

On the evening of August 3, 1492, Columbus departed from Palos, Spain with three ships; one larger carrack, Santa Maria, and two smaller caravels, Pinta, and Santa Clara, nicknamed Nina. After about five weeks, his crew sighted land on October 12, 1492. Columbus called the island (in what is now The Bahamas) San Salvador.

While he didn't discover the new trade route to the Far East, he did open up exploration of the New World to Europe and particularly Spain. Many other explorers would follow, using these routes discovered by Columbus.

eLibrary Elementary BookCarts are flexible lesson plans for inquiry-based learning activities. Instead of sending students out to search eLibrary elementary, and often waste time, assign students to open a BookCart activity that minimizes searching and maximizes learning. BookCarts can include all the information and resources that students need to complete the learning activity:

• Essential Questions for Critical Thinking that guide and motivate students
• Student Directions that list what students are expected to do with the resources
• Correlated Print Resources provide call numbers for students to include in their research
• Quizzes when appropriate to assess student knowledge of content

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity for your students to use: "Explorers of the New World."

It includes three models of essential questions for critical thinking that you can assign to your students. You can even create more or substitute others if you wish. Students can also do a controlled search from within the BookCart to find photos and maps connected with their explorer. Students should write a summary of their two explorers and include a printed map and photo.

• Logon to the eLibrary Elementary Teacher Edition to access BookCart Editor.
• Click the BookCart Admin link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
• Review the list of Folders on the left side and click Elementary BookCarts.
• Scroll down and find "Explorers of the New World."
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column to the right of this title.
• Return to My Local Carts.

This BookCart can easily be edited for most effective use:

• Click the new BookCart Title with the prefix "Copy of."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the Author boxes.
• Type your email address in the box next to Author.
• Edit the sample of STUDENT DIRECTIONS in the Description box.
• Type call numbers for print resources related to this topic.
• Scroll down and click Save.
• Click My Local Carts tab to see your newly edited and ready to use activity.

Assign students to write a report of about 100 words that cites at least two eLibrary articles/websites and one print resource. Students should select two explorers from different countries and summarize what they did to explore the New World. The summary should include a picture and map. It should also include how the work of that explorer affects America and our world today.

Pathfinder: Click Famous People >> Biographies by Profession >> Explorers

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

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