Alabama Social Studies SS24.8.11a
The Standard
- SS24.8.11
- Explain the motivations for exploration by European nations.
Summarize how expanding knowledge of geographical features and the development of navigational technology contributed to global exploration by Europeans.
2024 Alabama Course of Study: Social Studies
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students describe how knowledge of coastlines, Atlantic islands, winds, and currents helped Europeans plan voyages. They explain how compasses helped sailors keep direction and astrolabes helped them estimate latitude.
What Mastery Looks Like
- Given an Atlantic map, a student can trace a westbound route and a different route home using the prevailing winds. They can explain what a compass and an astrolabe each tell a sailor.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think a compass gives a ship its location, rather than its direction. They may assume early maps showed every coastline or that ships could use the same winds in both directions.
How to Assess It
- Give students an Atlantic map with wind arrows. Ask: “Why might a ship sail west from the Canaries but return farther north? Name one navigation tool and the information it provided.”
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs an Atlantic map, a compass rose, and wind arrows; have them plot a route west from the Canaries and a return via westerlies.
Ask: “If your compass shows direction but not latitude, what could an astrolabe tell you?” Have students write two sentences.
Hand out cards labeled compass, astrolabe, trade-wind map, direction, latitude, and westbound route; pairs match and explain the three pairs.
Display a phone map’s location dot beside a compass; ask students what a 1500s sailor could and could not know about their position.
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Printable SS24.8.11a Worksheet
A ready-to-print activity worksheet aligned to SS24.8.11a, with an answer key for the teacher on its own page. No account needed.
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Related Standards
- SS24.8.11b
Explain the economic, political, and religious factors that fostered exploration, including mercantilism.
- SS24.8.11
Explain the motivations for exploration by European nations.
- SS24.6.2a
Summarize how the Crusades, Reformation, and Renaissance influenced European exploration and describe how individuals contributed to these movements.
- SS24.6.2b
Trace the routes of key European expeditions in North America and describe their effects on colonization in the New World.
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