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8th grade · Social Studies · Unit 1 of 9

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.

Alaska content standards learning standard: SS.8.2.21.2; SS.8.2.17.1 · why Europeans explored, and the long-term effects of the Columbian Exchange

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 Alaska

In the Alaska content standards, this is unit 1 of 9 in 8th grade Social Studies, before Founding Ideas.

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: Alaska Department of Education and Early Development

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

    European trading companies in the 1600s, like the Dutch East India Company,…

    • only sold tea in Europe
    • came to rule land and people in Asia
    • explored the Moon

  2. Question 2

    In the 1770s, Captain James Cook mapped…

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

  3. Question 3

    Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India by sailing around…

    • Australia
    • South America
    • Africa
    • Asia

  4. Question 4

    By 1900, European empires had colonized most of…

    • Antarctica
    • Africa
    • Europe

  5. Question 5

    The Mercator map projection helped sailors because…

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

  6. Question 6

    Jewish communities were expelled from England in…

    • 1776
    • 1950
    • 1290

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