Exploration Storytelling Project

The exploration of the Americas includes some of the best stories from history.  Your job is to learn the story of one of the explorers and tell it in a way that would be fun and interesting to your peers.  You can choose the mode of storytelling—consider one of the following:

• A children’s picture book
• A comic book chapter
• A short video
• A one-act play
• A song (lyrics and music)
• A travel journal
• A collection of “lost letters”
• A story in the style of another author
• A documentary told through pictures
• A poem

On the due date, you will present your story to the class.  You will also submit a typed report (using Googledocs) responding to the following questions:

1.      What were the motives behind the exploration? Economic motives? Political motives? Social motives? Religious motives?

2.      What areas were explored/discovered?

3.      How did the exploration impact either Native Americans or Africans?  Which specific groups were affected?  (Consider impact in terms of economics, society, politics, religion, and culture.)

4.      What was the explorer’s legacy?

5.      What were some fun facts you discovered about your explorer?

The last page of your report should be a Works Cited page, using MLA guidelines.  You must use at least one primary source and one secondary source.

You may present on any one of the following explorers (Note that the indicated country is the sponsor of exploration, not necessarily the nation of origin.):

• Henry “The Navigator” (Portugal)
• Coronado (Spain)
• Ponce de Leon (Spain)
• Balboa (Spain)
• De Soto (Spain)
• Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (Spain)
• Jacques Cartier (France)
• Jean Ribault (France)
• Henry Hudson (Netherlands)
• Amerigo Vespucci (Italy)
• John Cabot (England)
• Vitus Bering (Russia)
• Leif Ericson (Norway)
• Zheng He (China)