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4th grade · Social Studies · Unit 5 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.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 4.H2.1; 4.SP4.1 · why Europeans explored, and the causes and effects of their empires in the Americas

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. New ships and tools, like the compass and astrolabe, made long voyages possible.
  2. Colonialism means one country taking control of another land and its people.
  3. The Columbian Exchange carried crops, animals and diseases between hemispheres.

Example: What does colonialism mean? Explorers claimed lands for their countries. Those countries then ruled the people there. Answer: one country taking control of another land and its people

Exploration & Exchange in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 5 of 9 in 4th grade Social Studies, after The Columbian Exchange and 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: Arizona Department of Education

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

    Ferdinand Magellan's expedition was the first to…

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

  2. Question 2

    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

  3. Question 3

    Indigenous peoples resisted colonization through…

    • only trade
    • revolts, alliances, and keeping their languages and traditions
    • doing nothing

  4. Question 4

    Ships in the 1500s to 1800s also carried… across the Atlantic against their will.

    • enslaved Africans
    • Inca rulers
    • European kings

  5. Question 5

    The Mercator map projection helped sailors because…

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

  6. Question 6

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

    • Australia
    • South America
    • Asia
    • Africa

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