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6th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 14

The Columbian Exchange

Crops, animals, diseases and the Middle Passage

What your child practices

The plants, animals, people, ideas and diseases that crossed the Atlantic after 1492, sugar plantations, and the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage, told factually, with how enslaved Africans resisted and kept their cultures alive.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 6.3; 6.6 · the Columbian Exchange and the triangular trade, and their effects on peoples of the Americas and Africa

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Columbian Exchange moved crops, animals and diseases between hemispheres after 1492.
  2. From Europe to the Americas: wheat, horses, cattle and diseases like smallpox. From the Americas: corn, potatoes, tomatoes.
  3. The slave trade (1500s to 1800s) carried enslaved Africans on the Middle Passage.

Example: Which crop came to the Americas from Europe: wheat or corn? Corn was first grown in the Americas. Wheat came from across the Atlantic. Answer: wheat

The Columbian Exchange in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 1 of 14 in 6th grade Social Studies, before The Thirteen Colonies.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Which animal came to the Americas from Europe?

    • Bison
    • Turkeys
    • Horses
    • Llamas

  2. Question 2

    Why is it called the Columbian Exchange?

    • Columbus invented money
    • It happened in Colombia only
    • It began after Columbus's voyages in 1492
    • Columbus traded with China

  3. Question 3

    The transatlantic slave trade lasted roughly…

    • From 100 to 200 CE
    • From 1950 to 2000
    • From the 1500s to the 1800s
    • Only one year

  4. Question 4

    The Middle Passage was…

    • A road through the Andes
    • The voyage of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic
    • A trade route on the Silk Road
    • A canal in Panama

  5. Question 5

    The triangular trade linked…

    • Asia, Australia and Antarctica
    • Europe, Africa and the Americas
    • Canada, Mexico and Peru
    • Only Spain and Portugal

  6. Question 6

    Coffee and bananas were brought to the Americas and…

    • Became major plantation crops
    • Were sent back to Europe at once
    • Were used only as decoration
    • Never grew there

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