Subscribe

8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 9 of 13

Exploration & Exchange

Voyages, maps and the Columbian Exchange

What your child practices

The great voyages, the ships and tools that made them possible, mapmaking, the Columbian Exchange and the rise of colonial empires and mercantilism.

Alabama Course of Study content standard: 8.11; 8.12 · why Europeans explored, and the effects of colonization on Africa, the Americas and Europe

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Europeans sailed to find sea routes to Asia; Vasco da Gama reached India by sailing around Africa.
  2. New tools helped: the Mercator projection kept compass directions straight for sailors.
  3. The Columbian Exchange moved plants, animals and diseases, and ships carried enslaved Africans across the Atlantic against their will.

Example: How did Vasco da Gama reach India? He sailed from Portugal. He went south along the coast of Africa. He rounded its tip and crossed to India. Answer: by sailing around Africa

Exploration & Exchange in Alabama

In the Alabama Course of Study, this is unit 9 of 13 in 8th grade Social Studies, after Renaissance & Reformation and before Encounter & the Atlantic World.

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

    The Mercator map projection helped sailors because…

    • it had no lines
    • it was round
    • it showed true sizes
    • it kept compass directions straight

  2. Question 2

    The Columbian Exchange brought… to the Americas.

    • horses, cattle and wheat
    • corn, potatoes and cacao
    • llamas and quinoa

  3. Question 3

    The caravel was a ship that…

    • flew
    • had an engine
    • could sail against the wind

  4. Question 4

    In the 1770s, Captain James Cook mapped…

    • the Sahara
    • much of the Pacific, including Australia's east coast
    • the Andes

  5. Question 5

    Colonialism means…

    • trading fairly as equals
    • one country taking control of another land and its people
    • staying at home

  6. Question 6

    Ferdinand Magellan's expedition was the first to…

    • sail all the way around the world
    • reach the Moon
    • cross the Sahara

More 8th grade