Age of Exploration: Explorer's Maps Project

The Majestic Map Company has asked you to design a souvenir map to be sold in the gift shop at the birthplace museum of an explorer.  Sometimes the place where an important or famous person is born is preserved as a museum for tourist to visit.  A birthplace museum typically includes rooms with historical furniture, often what was in the house when the famous person was born, along with exhibits about the life of the famous person.

Your map must appeal to tourist who are visiting the birthplace museum.  It must fit onto one side of an 11 x 14 piece of paper. (Ledger paper).  It must be colorful and attractive to appeal to tourist who will buy it as an informational reference and/or to display on their wall at home or in the office or classroom.

You map must include these things:

• The explorers name.
• A map of the routes they travelled on their voyages
• At least two illustrations from this list:
• a portrait of the explorer
• a diagram of one of their ships
• a scene showing what happened on their voyage
• A paragraph about their life including why they are important. Use the information in the history book for this.
• Information (either visual or in writing) about the impact of exploration including.  
• A product or other thing they may have brought back to Europe
• Something they brought to the Americas

Due to copyright issues, and a very low budget, the company must insist on original work.  No part of the project my be copied/printed from the internet or other sources.

Your may choose any of the following explorers:

• Vasco da Gama
• Juan Cabral
• Christopher Columbus
• Ferdinand Magellan
• Hernan Cortez
• Francisco Pizarro
• John Cabot
• Giovanni Da Verrazano
• Henry Hudson

Be sure to tell Mr. Chester whom you have chosen. No more than two groups per person.

Buzzfeed's Top Ten Renaissance People Projects.

First read all of chapter 30 and take notes using the packet. Do not do the bottom part about the pedestals. We're not doing this.

Follow these steps to create your Top Ten Renaissance People projects.

1. Cut one large piece of paper (11 x 14) in half making to long strips of paper.
2. Fold both pieces of paper in half twice to make four equal "squares".
3. Glue one square to another to make one long strip.  This strip will have seven squares.  
1. Fold this long strip into an accordion booklet.
4. Cut out your notes and attach them to the booklet.
1. Create a cover page on the front.
2. Rank the people #1-10.
3. Glue one person to each page in order.  (You'll need to use the backs.  
4. Number each person by their rank.
5. Write a reason for each person's rank.
6. Create a list of "Runners Up." write this list on the last page.
5. Glue your book into your journal.

This project is due on Tuesday.

Renaissance Action Figure Project

The Ed-U-Fun Group is designing a line of Renaissance action figures to sell to history teachers and students.  They already have a William Shakespeare doll test figure designed.

You have been hired to design an action figure and the packaging that it will come in.


Select one Renaissance figure (person) from the list below.  Research the life of that person.  The Ed-U-Fun Group wants you to design and present the following items:

• An action figure.  The figure must include two items it can hold, one in each hand. These must be detachable.  
• An accessory that will come with the figure.  This must be displayed in the package.  This is one thing the Shakespeare figure does not currently have. 
• A 200 word biography of the figure that will go on the back of the packaging.  This biography should include these things:
• A brief passage about the overall life of the figure-- childhood, major events in their life, achievements.  This should be appropriate for 11 to 14-year-old students. Keep it interesting.
• An explanation of the two items and the accessory. This may not be a bullet list, but should be written in an interesting way.
• A summary of why the figure is important in history and how he or she contributed to the Renaissance.

Begin your project by selecting a figure from the list below.  Let Mr. Chester know whom you have selected.  The Ed-U-Group wants to see as many Renaissance figure designs as possible.

You will have Friday, April 22 and Tuesday April 26 to research and prepare your presentation. Presentations are scheduled for Tuesday, May 2. You will turn in a typed copy of your speech in MLA format.  Speeches must be memorized this time.  Your action figure and the accessories will be your visual aid.

Possible Renaissance figures:

List A

• Leonardo da Vinci        
• Michelangelo             
• Galileo Galilei              
• Nicolaus Copernicus           
• Isabella I of Spain             
• Elizabeth I of England       
• Christopher Columbus         
• Martin Luther               
• King Henry VIII           
• Vasco da Gama           
• Ferdinand Magellan         
• Hernan Cortes              
• Isaac Newton            

List B

• Catherine de Medici                                
• Dante Alighieri         
• Filippo Brunelleschi      
• Sandro Boticelli
• Machiavelli               
• Titian                 
• Andreas Vesalius    
• Sir Walter Raliegh     
• Miguel Cervantes    
• Desiderius Erasmus
• Pope Leo X            
• John Calvin               
• Anne Bolyn               
• Francisco Pizarro
• Henry Hudson         
• Hans Kepler
• Johannes Gutenberg      
• Marco Polo           

List C

• Francisco Petrarch    
• Donatello             
• Girolamo Cardano
• Lorenzo de Medici
• Albrecht Durer
• Galen                 
• Pope Clement V        
• Pope Gregory XI       
• John Wycliffe           
• Jan Hus
• Catherine of Siena    
• Huldrych Zwingli
• William Tyndale
• Queen Mary of England      
• Ignatius Loyola
• Prince Henry the Navigator        
• Pedro Cabral                              
• John Cabot          
• Giovanni da Verrazano        
• Francis Bacon      
• Antoine van Leeuwenhoek         
• Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit       
• Artemesia Gentellischi     
• Isabella d'Este        
• Lucretia Borgia                 
• Ben Johnson     Manuel *1

List D

• Other people you can suggest

Open House it This Thursday, April 6.

Hope to see you.

Here Are Some Pictures That May Be On The Test Thursday.

Some of these pictures will be on the China/Japan test Thursday.

There may be other pictures on the test as well.

Edo Period Artwork

Here are the slides from our lesson on art during Japan's Edo period. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

Four Japanese Demons

Daimyo Procession, 

Insect Procession

Otsu-e Yakko - Standard Carrier

Otsu-e Goblin in Prayer

Otsu-e Storefront

View of Matsushima

Mt. Fuji from Miho-no-Matsubara

Rice Paddies and Fuji after Taiga

Basho with a Deer

Basho and Two Haiku

Read-In Day Reading

What did you read for today's Read-in?

Let us know in a comment.

Tell us what you read and what you thought about it?  Tell us what your book was about but avoid long plot summaries.  Why you liked or didn't like a book is much more interesting than a plot summary.

Two or three sentences is all you need.