European Exploration Student Activities

Describe the events of a typical day at sea on one of the ships engaged in the Age of Discovery. Note what sorts of activities would take place and when they would take place.

Map the search for the North West Passage.

On a large map, using a different colour legend for each nation, mark the major voyages of the explorers of the Age of Discovery.

Research the caravel. Why was it a superior ship design compared to what came before it?

Who was Marco Polo and why was he important? Conduct some online research in order to find out about the man, his accomplishments, and his impact. Present the results of your findings to the rest of the class in the form of a PowerPoint presentation.

Design a storyboard of the search for the elusive North West Passage.

Imagine that you are Christopher Columbus petitioning the Spanish court for sponsorship for a trans-Atlantic voyage. Form groups of three, write the dialogue that might have taken place, and perform it - in costume, if possible - for the class.

Try to build your own functioning astrolabe.

Your group is searching for the best site for a permanent colony. List the factors that you would consider in your decision.

Which fishery system was superior? Why? Why was salt so critical in the process?

Choose any three of the explorers mentioned, each from a different nation, and write what would most fittingly appear on their tombstones.

Compare the reaction of the Inuit with the first contact with the Europeans with the first contact experience of eastern aboriginal groups. Was it essential similar or different?

Explain why the Portuguese took the early lead in the imperial rivalry.

Galileo is a very significant figure in the Age of Science and in the Age of Exploration. He got into serious trouble with the Roman Catholic Church for arguing that the sun, rather than the earth was the center of the universe and that the earth rotated around the stationary sun. Conduct the excommunication trial of Galileo in class.

Imagine that you are a contemporary psychologist (which obviously did not exist). What emotions and fears would you have to treat with crewmembers about to embark on an early voyage of discovery? How would you go about trying to lessen them?

Map exercise. Locate and download three early maps of the Age of Discovery. Note the cartographer and the date. What weaknesses and inaccuracies can you detect in each map? Can you suggest reasons for those inaccuracies? What appears to happen with the accuracy of maps with the passage of time? Why is that significant?

Of the explorers mentioned in this chapter, which one do you feel had the single greatest impact on world history? Why? Write an editorial supporting your choice.

What is the significance of the final words that Galileo is supposed to have uttered at the end of his trial, "But it still moves"?

Write a contemporary newspaper article explaining why the spices of the Orient were considered so critical for the health of Europeans.

Write a thematic essay on "The Nation that Won the Age of Discovery."

Compile a list of the problems, difficulties, and challenges faced by the explorers during the Age of Discovery. Classify them. Which category do you think was the hardest to overcome? Why?

Divide the class into different nationalities around the sixteenth century. You are convening the first session of a High Council met in order to avoid conflict in the coming imperial rivalry. Each nation, around 1600, should prepare a brief outlining its demands and reasons for them, and then present them to the Council. Note what the final outcome of the conference is.

Go into your foods room and cook and serve a meal of cod.

Imagine that you are one of Columbus's ninety crewmembers. Write three journal accounts of your voyage (one on the eve of your voyage, one in mid-voyage, and one upon the discovery of land.) Note your feelings as well as your activities.

List the factors that encouraged the Age of Exploration. Order the factors from most important to least important. Write a one-paragraph justification of your first choice.

List the reasons why so many of the early attempts at establishing permanent colonies met with failure.

Put yourself in the position of Jack, Hudson's son. The mutineers have just cast you adrift. What thoughts are going through your mind? What would your last thoughts be?

Select one of the explorers mentioned in this chapter, fully research him, design a PowerPoint presentation about his life, accomplishments, and legacy, and present it to the class.

As a ship's captain, what navigational information would be essential for you to have? Explain. What devices were invented in order to accomplish that? What navigational information would be useful for you to have? Explain. What navigational devices were invented to assist you in those areas?

Conduct a class debate on the following resolution: Resolved that for over four centuries Christopher Columbus was erroneously accorded the title of hero.

Explain the Copernican Revolution.

Explain why many Europeans exploited the aboriginal peoples they encountered. What has been the legacy of that treatment?

Explain why the ability to locate a ship's latitudinal position was so important. Research how discovering longitudinal position was developed.

Fairly recently the 500th anniversary of both Columbus and Cabot's voyages were commemorated. Research the two events in order to discover if the two were largely similar or in fact quite different.

Select two or three of the action pictures in this chapter and conduct some research as to how the pictures were compiled. Are they accurate? Are they romanticized? Fully explain your position with evidence.

Write a contemporary article that might have appeared in a Madrid newspaper explaining Spain's decision to support Columbus, after other countries had rejected him.