Unit Plan 4 (Grade 5 Social Studies): Exploration and Exchange
European exploration was driven by wealth, trade, religion, and competition, shaping ocean routes and encounters that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas while bringing both exchange and profound impacts on Indigenous peoples.
Focus: Investigate European exploration motives, routes, and interactions with Indigenous peoples, using maps and sources to trace cause and effect and spatial connections across the Atlantic world.
Grade Level: 5
Subject Area: Social Studies (History • Geography • Inquiry/Skills)
Total Unit Duration: 5 sessions (one week), 50–60 minutes per session
I. Introduction
Students explore why European powers sailed west and south, where they traveled, and how they interacted with Indigenous peoples in the Americas. They analyze motives (wealth, trade, religion, competition), routes across oceans, and early exchanges of goods, ideas, and diseases. Students also begin to grapple with both short-term encounters and long-term consequences of exploration.
Essential Questions
- What motivated European explorers to leave home and cross oceans?
- How did geography (winds, currents, landforms, waterways) shape exploration routes and encounters?
- In what ways did early exploration and exchange benefit some groups and harm others, especially Indigenous peoples?
II. Objectives and Standards
Learning Objectives — Students will be able to:
- Identify major motives for European exploration and connect them to specific voyages.
- Use maps with routes, legends, and scale to describe key exploration paths and regions of contact.
- Explain cause–effect chains linking exploration to changes in land use, trade, and Indigenous communities.
- Describe examples of human–environment interaction (using winds/currents, building forts/ports, resource extraction).
- Create an Exploration & Exchange Map + Explanation that shows routes, contacts, and consequences.
Standards Alignment — 5th Grade (C3-based custom)
- 5.C3.Hist.2: Use primary/secondary sources to explain causes and effects in major events.
- 5.C3.Geo.2: Use/create maps with scale, grid, legends, and routes to analyze exploration, trade, and migration.
- 5.C3.Geo.3: Explain how landforms, waterways, and climate shaped settlement patterns and economies.
- 5.C3.Geo.4: Analyze human–environment interaction (modify, adapt, conserve) in early colonial contexts.
- 5.C3.Geo.5: Describe spatial connections (diffusion, movement, interdependence) across the Atlantic world.
Success Criteria — Student Language
- I can explain why Europeans explored using at least two motives and a specific example.
- I can use a map to trace an exploration route and describe how geography affected the journey.
- I can show a clear cause–effect chain from exploration to changes in trade, land, or Indigenous communities.
- I can label routes, places, and a key/legend so another person can understand my Exploration & Exchange Map.