Activity I. Who, When and Where? « For Educators

Activity I. Who, When and Where?

Part I: Who are they?

Have students find out the identity of the people on this list.

Make sure that students notice when these people lived.

Then give students questions such as:

Could these people have known each other?
Could they have talked to each other? (A question about different languages)
Would they have had anything to talk about if they did meet?(Opportunity to discuss economic interests viewed from different perspectives)

List of names to identify:

Samuel de Champlain
Henri IV
Christopher Columbus
Captain John Smith
William Bradford
Pocahontas

Part II: When did they live?

When students have found out dates, have them compare (with a time line) how near or far apart in history these people were. Then have students look for the Civil War (1860s) to see how much earlier than that Samuel de Champlain crossed the ocean and explored Canada and New England.

Globe exercise
Introduce the idea of the Old World, using a globe. Start by pointing out Egypt, Greece and Rome. Go back to the time line and show how much earlier Greek (5th century BCE and 4th century BCE) and Roman days were (ending in 476 CE in the West). Then look at Europe as the Old World.

“The world used to be smaller than it is now.”
Ask students whether that statement is true. Explain (remind) to students that for many centuries people in the Old World did not know that the New World existed.

Part III: Where did they come from? Where did they go?

Places to find on the globe:

Rochefort, France (near Brouage, Champlain’s home, too small for most maps)
Ask students to use electronic searches to see if anyone can find Brouage.) It will probably not show up on any globe.)
Paris
Montreal
Quebec City
St. Lawrence
Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Notice the rivers

Point out to students how many of the world’s famous cities are located on rivers (New York, London, Paris, Rome, Dublin, Cairo, and Beijing).
Were there advantages for cities located on a river, back when people were choosing where to build cities?
Ask students to come up with a list of reasons to explain why they think so many cities are situated on rivers.
Ask students to check whether it is true that all the state capitols of the United States are located on rivers. And what about Canadian provinces?
What important river did Samuel de Champlain use?

When the French Were Here

Champlain Quadricentennial