Students will understand how the exploration and colonization of North America transformed human history.
Objective 1 Describe and explain the growth and development of the early American colonies.
a. Using maps -- including pre-1492 maps -- and other geographic tools, locate and analyze the routes used by the explorers.
Connection to TPACK
The Google Earth Virtual Tour of when Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 attends to every aspect of TPACK as described below:
Technology: This assignment utilizes a computer program called Google Earth. It is essential that students become familiar with the basics of this program because it is become widely used. In fact, my sister just called me yesterday and said that her boss at work played a trick on his mother-in-law and pretended to be near her hometown by describing the environment around it using the pictures from Google Earth...I don't think she was amused! Students need to be aware of their resources, and hopefully they'll find a better use for them than just jokes.
Pedagogy: Students will be more motivated to learn if they can visually see what they are learning and identify with the material. That is why the students have an activity at every tour location that includes a journal entry. This will help the students think of the voyage as more than just a set of abstract facts.
Content: The information discussed in the virtual tour about the voyage was all taken from "I, Columbus" edited by Peter and Connie Roop. This book is a compilation of some of Columbus' journal entries. The entries are simple and give the reader a good glimpse of the situation at the time of the voyage. The virtual tour presents the information simply and chronologically using the journal entries as a guide. The students learn information about the route of the voyage, yet they do not have to read it from a textbook. Other non-fiction books for the teacher's reference include "Christopher Columbus" by Kristin Petrie, and "Christoper Columbus" by Susan Bivin Aller (it is important that the teacher has a good grasp on the content in order to create a comprehensive tour).
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