Explorer Report

Explorer Report

Explorer List | Requirements | Score Sheet | Standards

Handy-dandy prep sheet here (print on legal-size paper)

What is it?

Your project for this month is an explorer report, which consists of an oral presentation, written report, and bibliography. You need to choose from the list below (There are more on p. 553 of your Social Studies book). If you want to do your report on someone else, you need to check with me first.

EXPLORERS for LIVING TIMELINE:

* can be found in your Social Studies book

#	EXPLORER	DATE	NATIONALITY	MAIN ACHIEVEMENT(S)
1	Eric the Red	c. 982	Norwegian	Sailed to Greenland for Iceland
2	Leif Ericson	c. 1000	Norwegian	Probably the first European to reach mainland of North America
3	Marco Polo*	1271-1295	Italian	Visited Asia, kept written journals
4	Bartolomeu Dias	1487-1488	Portuguese	First European to round the Cape of Good Hope
5	Christopher Columbus*	1492-1504	Italian	Made four voyages to West Indies and Caribbean lands
6	Giovanni Caboto*	1497-1498	Italian	Explored Newfoundland
7	Vasco da Gama	1498	Portuguese	First European to reach India by sea
8	Amerigo Vespucci*	1499-1504	Italian	Made several voyages to West Indies and South America
9	Vasco Núñez de Balboa*	1513	Spanish	Led expedition across Isthmus of Panama; discovered the Pacific Ocean
10	Juan Ponce de León*	1513	Spanish	Explored Florida
11	Hernando Cortés*	1519-1521	Portuguese	Conquered Mexico
12	Ferdinand Magellan*	1519-1521	Portuguese	Commanded the first voyage around the world under the Spanish flag (voyage completed in 1522 after his death)
13	Giovanni da Verrazano*	1524	Italian	Sailed to North America looking for water route to Asia
14	Estevanico*	1528-1539	African	Traveled through North America
15	Jacques Cartier*	1535	French	Sailed up the St. Lawrence River
16	Francisco Pizarro	1531-1535	Spanish	Conquered Peru; founded Lima
17	Hernando de Soto*	1539-1542	Spanish	Explored the American Southeast; reached Mississippi River
18	Francisco Vásquez de Coronado*	1540-1542	Spanish	Explored American Southwest
19	Sir Francis Drake	1577-1580	English	First Englishman to make a voyage around the world
20	Juan de Oñate	1598-1605	Spanish	Explored American southwest
21	Samuel de Champlain*	1603-1616	French	French explorer who explored the eastern coast of what is now Cananda
22	Henry Hudson*	1609-1611	English	Explored Hudson Bay, Hudson River, and Hudson Strait
23	Jacques Marquette	1673	French	Explored North America w/ Louis Joliet
24	Louis Joliet	1673	French	Explored North American w/ Jacques Marquette
25	Sieur de la Salle*	1679-1682	French	Explored Great Lakes region and Mississippi River
26	Captain James Cook	1768-1779	English	Made extensive oceanic voyages; explored South Pacific
27	Daniel Boone	1769	American	One of the first settlers to cross the Appalachian Mountains
28	Meriwether Lewis*	1804-1806	American	Led expedition across Rocky Mountains to Pacific Ocean and back w/ William Clark
29	William Clark*	1804-1806	American	Led expedition across Rocky Mountains to Pacific Ocean and back w/ Meriwether Lewis
30	Zebulon Pike	1806	American	Explored southwestern part of Louisiana Purchase
31	Sir John Franklin	1819-1845	English	Discovered a route through the Arctic Seas to the Pacific
32	William Becknell*	1821	American	Mapped the Santa Fe Trail
33	Jedediah Smith*	1824-1829	American	Explored Great Basin; blazed trails across Rocky Mountains to California and the Pacific Northwest
34	John C. Fremont*	1842-1846	American	American pathfinder who made maps of the West
35	Robert Peary	1909	American	First to reach North Pole
36	Roald Amundsen	1911	Norwegian	First to reach South Pole
37	Jacques-Ives Cousteau	1950-1997	French	Explored the oceans
38	Sir Edmund Hillary	1953	New Zealander	First to climb Mt. Everest
39	Yuri Gagarin	1961	Soviet	First person to travel in space
40	James Lovell	1968	American	Orbited the moon
41	Neil Armstrong	1969	American	First person to walk on moon
42	John Young	1981	American	Commanded first space shuttle flight
43	Sally Ride	1983	American	First American woman in space

note: spelling of explorers’ names may vary in some sources

Requirements :

(1) The oral presentation should include:

birth and death dates
country of origin
where explorer went and what he/she was trying to find
what scientific knowledge the explorer had to help him/her
who paid for the exploration, and what they wanted in return
what was accomplished by the explorer
tracing on a map where the explorer went
any other especially interesting information about the explorer

(2) The written report is a five-day journal. Historians have been able to learn about the past by reading written documents. Therefore, you are going to create a simulation of a journal kept by the explorer that you are studying. Things to note:

have five different journal entries (with five different dates)
dates may be months (or even years) apart
you are to pretend that you are the explorer writing his/her thoughts
what you write must be based on what you learned from your research
journal is due two days before the oral presentation (the rough draft of the journal is due one week before the final draft)

(3) Bibliography – list author, title, publisher, city, date. Use:

1 Internet source
1 book from the library
1 encyclopedia

Explorer Report: Score Sheet

Oral Presentation................................._____/20

birth date & death date
country of origin
where explorer went
what he/she was trying to find
scientific knowledge
who paid for exploration
what they wanted in return
accomplishments
map tracing voyage
interesting info

Voice, Posture, Eye Contact………......…____/5

Journal………………………………..…____/20

Entry #1
Entry #2
Entry #3
Entry #4
Entry #5

Bibliography…………………..…...………____/5

library source
encyclopedia source
internet source
format

Total ………………………………………..____/50

astronaut clip art

Standards :

This explorer report fulfills many requirements of the 5 th Grade Standards:

Social Studies 5.2 Students trace the routes of early explorers and describe the early explorations of the Americas.

Describe the entrepreneurial characteristics of early explorers and the technological developments that made sea exploration by latitude and longitude possible (e.g. compass, sextant, astrolabe, seaworthy ships, chronometers, gun powder).
Explain the aims, obstacles, and accomplishments of the explorers, sponsors, and leaders of the key European expeditions and the reasons Europeans chose to explore and colonize the world (e.g. the Spanish Reconquista, the Protestant Reformation, the Counter Reformation).
Trace the routes of the major land explorers of the United States, the distances traveled by explorers, and the Atlantic trade routes that linked Africa, the West Indies, the British colonies, and Europe.
Locate on maps of North and South America land claimed by Spain, France, England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Russia.