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5th grade · Social Studies · Unit 2 of 12

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 5.3a; 5.3c; 5.3d · why Europeans explored, the tools that helped them, the Columbian Exchange, and plantation slavery across the Atlantic

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. The Columbian Exchange brought horses, cattle and wheat to the Americas, and maize and potatoes to Europe.
  2. Mercantilism: countries built colonies to get raw materials and sell goods.
  3. Colonized peoples resisted through revolts, alliances and keeping their languages.

Example: Why did mercantilism encourage countries to build colonies? Colonies had resources like timber and gold. They were also places to sell goods. Answer: to get raw materials and sell goods

Exploration & Exchange in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 2 of 12 in 5th grade Social Studies, after Maya, Aztec & Inca and before First Peoples of the Americas.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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

    Colonialism means…

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

  2. Question 2

    Which explorer reached the Caribbean in 1492, sailing for Spain?

    • Vasco da Gama
    • Zheng He
    • Christopher Columbus

  3. Question 3

    The Mercator map projection helped sailors because…

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

  4. Question 4

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

    • European kings
    • Inca rulers
    • enslaved Africans

  5. Question 5

    The astrolabe helped sailors find their…

    • altitude above sea level
    • speed
    • latitude

  6. Question 6

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

    • South America
    • Africa
    • Asia
    • Australia

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