It's the End of the World As We Know It

At the end of this unit students are able to understand how exploration changed the understanding of "the world" as explorers ventured out into the "unknown."

1. Students will work in small groups (3-5 students) to research the Age of Exploration (reasons for exploration, countries and people involved).

2. Based on their research, student groups will select an explorer, or their resason for exploration, to focus their movie on.

3. A map that the explorer used or could have used to engage in their exploration will be selected by the group. A digital image will be collected to incorporate into their movie.

4. Teacher will model the development of a storyboard that will serve as a springboard for the movie. Then a storyboard will be developed by the student groups to guide the compilation of the movie. This storyboard will include still pictures, video footage, narration and music/audio additions.

5. Student groups will be required to complete a script for any narration included in their movies.

6. Basic instruction in the use of Microsoft Movie Maker or iMovie will be provided as well as links to Movie Maker tutorial http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx and iMovie tutorial http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie

7. Students will produce their 3-5 minute movie and screen it with the whole class.

8. Teacher and/or students can edit the student group movies into one movie on the Age of Exploration.