Creator: Travelbag | visit site
Grade Range: 5 - 11
Travelbag uses Google Maps to create maps following the footsteps of famous explorers. Select and view the journeys of Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart, and more. After choosing an explorer, click again to see the original journey or the journey using present-day transportation options. Each option shares directions for the explorer’s journey in a step by step timeline.
In the Classroom
Share maps from this site on your interactive whiteboard during your study of explorers and previous time periods to help students understand the difference in transportation modes compared to today’s options. Before discussing as a class, have students explore these maps on their own then enhance and share their findings with a quick and easy website creator like Carrd, reviewed here. Use this site as a model and have students create their own maps to demonstrate the path of explorers, characters in novels, or historical events using Story Maps, reviewed here. Story Maps is a multimedia tool that can redefine student learning by offering tools for creating interactive maps that include images, videos, and text.
At Home
A Race of Discovery is an excellent site to share with your student to help him visualize and understand journeys of the featured explorers. Look at these maps together and discuss the difficulties of travel in previous times compared to modern modes of transportation.
Tags
women, transportation, lewis and clark, marco polo, aviation, columbus day, explorers, Google, maps,
Subjects
American History, History & Culture: World, Social Studies, Social Studies,