Adapted from the following webquest activity

Lewis and Clark Webquest

Journey to a New Frontier

INTRODUCTION

In the years following the Revolution, Americans were looking to expand. The United States consisted of only 17 states by the early 1800’s and with populations increasing and natural resources decreasing, many people were looking to the west, which was largely uninhabited and still pristine in its nature. In 1803 the territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains was ceded in ownership from Spain to France. When United States President Thomas Jefferson, who was interested in obtaining control of New Orleans and it’s port learned of this trade, he sent James Monroe to France to aid American Minister Robert Livingston in negotiating the purchase of New Orleans with France’s leader Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon, who needed money to wage war between France and Great Britain, agreed to sell not only the land around the city New Orleans, but also all of the Louisiana Territory for $15 million. After little deliberating Monroe and Livingston accepted this offer and the purchase of the land known as Louisiana was made. With this amazing acquisition, The United States doubled in size, adding 830,000 square miles and an untold abundance of fertile farmland and natural resources.

The addition of this new land brought great opportunity for Americans. Thomas Jefferson and congress needed the land mapped out and resources reported on. In the spring of 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark headed the exploration, traveling up the Missouri River and west to the Pacific Ocean. Along the way the explorers made note of native tribes, animal specimens, and useful plants they encountered. They also made a map of the rivers, mountains and passes they navigated their way through.


TASK

Your task is to form a group with five of your fellow classmates. Each of you will take on one of the following five roles:

1.) Anthropologist - Native Tribes Specialist
2.) Geographer - Map Maker/geologist/trailblazer
2.) Botanist - Plant Specialist
4.) Zoologist - Animal Specialist
5.) Supply Master - Quartermaster/Outfitter

Once you have determined what role you would like to take on, individually you will need to gather information and report back to your group on what you have found. In order to gather information you can access several of the websites listed below. After all of the information has been gathered by each group member, together as a group you will need to develop a report that will be printed in a local newspaper concerning the upcoming Journey Out West.

PROCESS

Once each member of your group has chosen a role from the list, you must look up the following information, keeping in mind your profession, and make a report on what you have found. This will be an individual report, handed in to your teacher at the end of the project.

A.Anthropologist: Study the Native Americans you will encounter on your journey.
a. Where do they live? What are they called? What is distinctive about them?
b. What do they eat? Are they hunters and gatherers or agriculturalists?
c. Who or what do they worship?
d. Are they friendly? Why or why not?
e. Did they receive U.S. relations well?

B. Geographer: Map out the regions you travel and the route you take through the country. In your report, you need to discuss the significance of the route, difficulties along the way, and other information you encounter.
a. Draw the route taken both ways on a map of the U.S.
b. Label the three winter camps
c. Draw the North and South forks of the Missouri River
d. Label the Continental Divide.
e. The total mileage of the trip.

f. what unknown rivers and mountains were discovered and named?

C. Botanist: Study the plant life you encounter on the journey and document any new discoveries.
a. Find five plants unknown to U.S. scientists before 1803. Find pictures and tell about each one’s environment. Label its scientific name, family and species and uses of the plant.
b. Give a general description of what kinds of plants were different than those in the east and why you think they were different.

D. Zoologist: Study the animals you encounter on the journey and document any new discoveries.
a. Find five animals unknown to U.S. scientists in 1803. Find pictures and describe each one’s environment. Label it with its scientific name, family and species.

b..What interesting encounters did the expedition have with animals?
c. Give a description of what kinds of animals were different than those found in the east and why you think that is.

d. Did you find mammoths or dinosaurs?

E. Supply master: Determine what supplies will be needed for the journey and why.
a. Give a list of supplies you purchased before leaving and why you needed them.
b. What kinds of food could not be taken with, and how did you provide for them later?
c. Explain your method of food preservation.
d. Tell two medical problems that arose and how they were treated.
e. List some supplies that were not needed or got in the way.

f. what were some things the expedition had to eat that they hadn’t anticipated and why?

g. were there times that the expedition didn’t have enough food? What was done?

NEWSPAPER

Now that your individual reports are done, get together with the other members of your group. You will be writing a newspaper article about what you have found that will be published not only in each of your hometowns, but all over the country! Be sure to include the purpose for the mission, and also whether or not it was successful.

RESOURCES

http://www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/index.html

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisclark/index.html (Take a moment to play the game, HAVE FUN!)

http://www.time.com/time/2002/lewis_clark/#

http://www.lewis-clark.org

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JOURNALS/toc.html

http://www.inform.umd.edu/PBIO/L&C/L&Cpublic2.html (Look at the PRETTY plants)

http://www.edgate.com/lewisandclark/expedition.html

http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/amerikanistik/projekte/west/LandC.htm

these are just some websites to consider. Use google to refine or expand your search.

EVALUATION

You will be evaluated on your performance as a specialist and as a contributor to the group project-newspaper article. Your work as a specialist and as a group will be scored according to the following rules:

SPECIALIST

Objectives / Exemplary (3) / Accomplished (2) / Basic (1) / Score
ORGANIZATION / Information is organized with headings and listed notes. / Information is grouped together and in order with some headings. / Information is not in order.
QUALITY OF INFORMATION / Information answers the main idea of the questions and contains supporting data and/or examples. / Information relates to questions but is simple and offers little supporting information. / Information does not relate to the questions presented in the process section.
COMPLETION / All questions are answered. / Most of the questions are answered. / Only one or two of the questions are answered.

GROUP

Objectives / Exemplary (3) / Accomplished (2) / Basic (1) / Score
COOPERATION / Specialists work well together each one contributing to the article. / Contribution by most of the specialists to the article. / Only one or two specialists contributed to the article.
CREATIVITY / Article has a catchy title and peaks the interest of the reader. / Article has a good title and is interesting to read. / Title does not get the reader's attention and is written with grammatical problems.
INFORMATIVE / Newspaper article is accurate and is supported with data. / Article has only minor problems with accuracy with some detail. / Facts in the article are not accurate.

Scoring Scale:

A= 16-18

B= 13-15

C= 10-12

D= 8-10

F= BELOW 7

CONCLUSION

Congratulations!!! You have successfully traveled through a new frontier and gone through many trials and tribulations. You have encountered Indian tribes, lands, plants, and animals that have never been encountered. You have also dealt with surviving on the supplies that you have taken along and discovered out in the wild. You have completed a great newspaper article about your travels. Great Job!!!!

We hoped you have enjoyed viewing our wonderful Webquest! We had a lot of fun creating it, and hope that we can produce even better Webquests in our own classrooms! This Webquest was created by Sara Hendrickson, Rebecca Hutchinson, Sarah Pulliam, Paul Saevre, Amy Venuti!

November 18, 2002

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Students then created a newspaper (using the template below) in which they each contributed their findings and research, while having fun designing the newspaper and choosing interesting headlines.

One on one technology and group activity:

Using their lap tops, students work closely to edit their newspapers