Geography Search
About | K-12
Objectives | Materials Needed | Procedures
| Assessment
| Related Resources
Procedures:
Preliminary considerations should include checking the compatibility
of your classroom computer with the software and previewing the teacher’s
guide.
Day 1
- Set up the room - a) divide students into crews (up to six groups
with 4 or 5 in each) b) give each the name of their ship.
- Hand out materials - give log books to each crew.
- Prepare for the voyage - read and discuss the sections in the log
books related to the voyage, the crew, their job aboard the ship, and
the weather.
Day 2
- Getting Started - crews should meet in various locations throughout
the room and should have the log books and recording sheets.
- Appoint ship captains
- Prepare for life aboard - review sections in the guide related to
their job on board the ship.
- Step through the basic functions of the software with the class.
- Each crew will take a turn at the computer. The software will provide
them with different pieces of geographic information that they will
need to navigate.
- Crews return to their seats to analyze the data and plot their courses.
Day 3
- Students will continue to gather information from the software and
make group decisions after analyzing the data.
- The teacher can manipulate the sailing speed of the ships to fit in
with their class schedule. Generally, one or two crews make it back
from the New World before time runs out but their are a variety of ways
to run the simulation.
The teacher’s guide provides a variety of related extension activities
that may prove beneficial to your classroom such as:
- Chart the sun’s shadow.
- Design your own country.
- Why are there seasons?
- Research the details of historical explorations.
- Design a sextant.
- The evolution of ships
Center for Technology
and Teacher Education,
University of Virginia, This module was created by Timothy
A. Keiper Western Washington University