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Website
Mariners' Museum and Park

Mariners' Museum: Vasco Da Gama

For Students 9th - 10th
A biography of Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama, highlighting his accomplishments to European exploration. Readers will find an accompanying accounts of his voyages and a collection of the tools he and his crews used for navigating the...
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Unit Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry: Shakespeare's the Tempest and Utopias of the European Renaissance

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Newberry Library learning module uses primary source material of Shakespeare in a lesson on how Renaissance writers and artists portrayed European exploration of America. Students read excerpts from works of Renaissance literature to...
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Interactive
Mariners' Museum and Park

Age of Exploration: The Great Exchange

For Students 9th - 10th
A great description and explanation of the exchange that took place between the Old World and New World as a result of European exploration. Find examples of plants, animals, and diseases that were traded as a result of exploration and...
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Article
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Exploration, American Beginnings: 1492 1690

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Thirty two primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the expectations and the realities of European exploration of the New World.
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Website
Mariners' Museum and Park

Mariners' Museum: The Ages of Exploration: Age of Discovery

For Students 4th - 8th
This Age of Discovery page presents naval artifacts and explorers of the 15th century to the early 17th century. It looks at European explorers who journeyed to North and South America, the search for the Northwest Passage, and...
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Handout
Mariners' Museum and Park

Age of Exploration: Changing View of the World: The Development of Map Making

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Read a summary of the history of map-making and the maps that were produced as a result of European exploration in the Americas. See examples of these maps and find out more about each one in this exhibit from the Mariners' Museum.
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Unit Plan
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: Age of Exploration

For Students 9th - 10th
[Free Registration/Login Required] Learn about the exploration of the Americas. Site includes primary source documents, videos, essays, and lesson plans to help students research the exploration of the new land.
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Primary
PBS

Pbs Learning Media: Primary Source Set: Exploration of the Americas

For Students 9th - 10th
This collection uses primary sources to explain the early exploration of the Americas.
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Unit Plan
Wisconsin Historical Society

American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts Early American Exploration/settlement

For Students 9th - 10th
A collaborative project of the Wisconsin Historical Society and National History Day, this site contains over 18,000 pages of primary source, eyewitness accounts of North American exploration starting with the Vikings.
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Article
University of California

Uc Santa Barbara: What Brought the Europeans to America?

For Students 9th - 10th
Short essay addresses reasons that brought the Europeans to America. Covering many important points, he also provides compelling reasons and a map.
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Website
University of Calgary

European Voyages of Exploration: 15th & 16th Centuries

For Students 9th - 10th
This award-winning website from the University of Calgary's History Department is both impressive and extensive. It focuses on Portuguese and Spanish expeditions of the 15th and 16th centuries (the sitemap provides a good outline of...
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Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The First Europeans

For Students 9th - 10th
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is...
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Handout
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The First Europeans

For Students 9th - 10th
The first Europeans to arrive in North America -- at least the first for whom there is solid evidence -- were Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is...
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Lesson Plan
National Geographic

National Geographic: European Borders Through History

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Lesson in which learners use maps to explore how European political borders have changed over time. Maps after WWI, WWII and European Union provided for comparison.
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Primary
Library of Congress

Loc: Discovery and Exploration

For Students 9th - 10th
This American Memory site documents the discovery and exploration of the Americas with both manuscripts and published maps, many of which date from the European Age of Discovery. The site includes 22 map titles and descriptions, as well...
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eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Colonial Societies 1500 1700: Spanish Exploration & Colonial Society

For Students 11th - 12th
Examines the establishment of Spanish settlements in America, the differences between them, and the conflicts the Spanish had with other European interests and with the native peoples.
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Website
McGraw Hill

Mc Graw Hill Higher Education: Old World, New Worlds

For Students 9th - 10th
This article from McGraw-Hill Higher Education discusses European exploration in the late 1400s and 1500s and its impact on English colonization hundreds of years later.
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Lesson Plan
The Newberry Library

Newberry: Exploration and Encounter: Map 3, Captain Cook and Hawaii, 1778

For Students K - 1st
Map and primary source information provide first-hand account of exploration and encounters between Europeans and Hawaiians. Includes lesson plans for k-12, links to reference material and supplemental resources, and curators notes.
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Handout
State Library of North Carolina

N Cpedia: John W. Kinchelo, Iii: American Indians at European Contact

For Students 9th - 10th
Native Americans inhabited the New World long before European explorers began establishing settlements on the land. This entry addresses the challenges the natives had to face upon Europe's arrival, trials in relationships, and how...
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Handout
Other

Texas Bob: The First Europeans in Texas: 1528 1536

For Students 9th - 10th
One of the first Europeans to penetrate the interior of Texas, read Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's account of his shipwreck and eventual return to the Spanish Court.
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: Exploring the Culture of Europe

For Teachers 6th - 8th
In this technology-based lesson, students will create a slideshow presentation or a travel brochure to highlight attractions in a chosen country and the historical significance of each attraction. Students will present their created...
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Website
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Teaching Geography: European Union

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Explore the European region and consider what makes a successful city and how effective is supranationalism? A video features Berlin and Amsterdam for urban development and then looks into the concept of supranationalism in the European...
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Graphic
University of Oregon

Mapping History: American History

For Students 9th - 10th
Interactive and animated maps and timelines of historical events and time periods in American history from pre-European times until post-World War II.
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Graphic
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: European Paintings Collection Highlights

For Students 9th - 10th
Explore a selection of the MFA's holdings of over 1,400 paintings from across Europe, featuring masterworks from the middle ages to the mid-twentieth century. Click on 'View All Works' to access the collection.

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