Exploration+and+Colonization

1. Ask students to brainstorm reasons for and against space exploration. What are the possible benefits and drawbacks? After completing the listing of pros and cons, have students compile a similar pro and con listing of reasons for the exploration and colonization of the New World in the 14th and 15th centuries. How are student lists alike and how are they different? (11.1.2, 11.1) **WIKI**
 * Introduction: Read Chart**
 * Essential Questions: Answer at the end of the Unit on your Wikispace**
 * How do geographically diverse settings affect culture?
 * How do social, political, and economic conditions shape national decisions?
 * How do cultural differences lead to conflicts between groups?
 * How do historians determine if consequences are positive or negative?
 * How do societies reflect democratic and undemocratic practices?
 * How do regions differ?

2. Draw (freehand) a map of North America with as many physical features as they remember. Have them check their maps for accuracy using the maps in the text or internet sites. (11.1.1)

3. Display the following Robert Frost quotation to students. Have students write about the validity of Frost’s idea, providing evidence to support their point of view. **WIKI**(11.1.1)

4. Divide students into pairs or small groups, and have them use the internet or maps in the text to identify the geographic characteristics of the United States. Emphasize the rich, varied, and productive environment and the advantages conferred by location. Stimulate student analysis of the effects of geography on the historical development by suggesting alternative situations (What if the Atlantic Coastal Plain was very narrow? What if the Appalachian Mountains were like the Rockies or the Himalayas? What if the Mississippi flowed northward instead of southward?) (11.1.1) **WIKI**

5. Use a Venn diagram to compare Spanish and French exploration and settlement in the Americas. (11.1.3) After completing the diagram, have students write a summary statement that addresses the effects of Spanish and French settlement in the Americas. **WIKI**

6. As students review reasons for European colonization on pages 4- 51, have them complete a semantic features analysis chart, such as the one below to categorize specific reasons under the conceptual headings. Students place a check in each space if appropriate. More than one category can be checked. (11.1.2) **WIKI** 7. Using Chapter 1 or internet resources and fill in a map of the American colonies. Label each of the colonies, create a color key to identify Southern, Middle, and New England colonies, and locate the following political/geographical features: (11.1.1)

Upon completion of the map research the following questions: **WIKI**
 * **Physical Features** || **Political Features** ||
 * Appalachian Mountains || Boston, Massachusetts ||
 * Atlantic Ocean || Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ||
 * Hudson River || New York City, New York ||
 * Chesapeake Bay || Baltimore, Maryland ||
 * || Charleston, South Carolina ||


 * What natural resources are available?
 * How are the physical features barriers to development in the 18th century?
 * What reasons can you provide for the location of the cities? Why did cities develop at those specific places?

8. In order to reinforce the link between physical characteristics and resources with early colonial economic activity. (11.1.1, 11.1.6, 11.1.7, 11.1.8) **WIKI** How did the geographic resources affect the economies that developed in the American colonies?