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Middle School Activities for World Explorers Unit
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The question: Does anyone have creative ideas for teaching world explorers? Students are bored with mapping the voyages and learning basic facts about each explorer.
Response by Elizabeth Haddon, Ed.D:
Orienteering. Plan out paths different groups of students need to take that all lead back to a center spot. One kid is the videographer, another kid is the leader, other kids identify trees and flora, other kids are in charge of planning food and drink, other kids check everyone’s equipment, all kids keep notes on iPads or pencil and paper, etc. Make sure the groups are supervised. Teach orienteering skills before the orienteering day. Design a virtual orienteering task, different tasks for different groups; some complex, others not so complex.
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Make a video of the personal side of what it means to be an explorer…what is the mentality, what was the explorer like as a little kid, how did the explorer’s parents feel about their kid’s tendency to explore.
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What is the nature of curiosity, of what benefit is curiosity to the survival of humankind, how do your students discover new things about their world or themselves, what would they like to learn more about, etc.?
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