AGRICULTURAL EXCHANGES-CIRCA 1492

Doris Gott

Preview of Main Ideas

Eighty percent of our present food plants were unknown to Europeans before 1492.  Early Spanish explorers invaded the New World in search of silver and gold.  Many were successful, but they also carried home a treasure of far greater value--Native American plants, sees, and roots.  One year's crop of corn, or potatoes, is worth more to the world than all the gold and silver on all the galleons in all the great treasure fleets.

Connection with the Curriculum

In primary grades this activity can be used in geography, science, reading, and writing.  The activity works will in a whole language thematic unit on Native Americans.

Teaching Level: Grades K-4.  (can be easily adapted for all grade levels.)

Objectives Classification Outline (Also see objectives classification matrix below.)

Objective #1: The student will learn about agricultural products (fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, spices, etc.) that were first introduced to the European continent after the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

Essential Element: The World in Spatial Terms.

Standard #3: How to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environment on Earth's surface.

Knowledge Statement #4: The causes and consequences of spatial interaction on Earth's surface.

Skill Set #1: Asking geographic questions.

Skill #1: Ask geographic questions--Where is it located?  Why is it there?  What is significant about its location?  How is its location related to the locations of other people, places, and environments?

Theme:  Movement.

Objective #2: The student will taste a variety of agricultural products (a nongeographic Objective).

Objective #3: The student will locate on a world map places where these products are grown.

Essential Element: The World in Spatial Terms.

Standard #1: How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

Knowledge Statement #3: How to display spatial information on maps and information on maps and other geographic representations.

Skill Set #3: Organizing geographic information.

Skill #1: Prepare maps to display geographic information.

Theme:  Movement.

Materials

1.      World desk maps.

2.      Quarter inch adhesive colored dots (signal dots). 

3.      Names of following products printed on slips of paper (avocado, beans,
     cocoa, corn, papaya, peanuts, squash, tapioca).

4.      Reference books (or a copy of the encyclopedia entry for each
     agricultural product).

5.      Sheet for listing clues (See Handout #1).

Suggestions for Teaching the Lesson

Opening the Lesson

1.      While studying about Native Americans, use the quote cited above from
     Food The Indians Gave Us by Wilma and R. Vernon Hays to pique
     interest.

2.      Model the lesson activity by demonstrating the procedure students
    will use.

1. Have a food product in a brown lunch bag.
2. Read the clues to the class (See clues below).
3. After the product is identified correctly, serve samples for tasting.
4. Place a quarter inch adhesive colored dot on a world map to indicate where the product was discovered or where it is currently grown.

Developing the Lesson

1.      Each cooperative group will secretly select a slip of paper with the name of an agricultural product that originated in the Western Hemisphere and was later transported to Europe.  (Parent/Home connection note: In second grade students can work individually rather than in cooperative groups.  Ask parents to help by reading the reference material aloud to their child at home.  Each student's assignment is to think of five good clues and write them on a brown lunch bag, bring the product in the bag to school the next day, and read the clues to the class.)

2.      Research the product by studying the reference material (with parental assistance).

3.      Write 5 clues on a brown paper lunch bag.  (List clues in order of difficulty, with the most difficult clue first).

Clues should include:

a.       Where product is grown (or where it was first discovered).

b.      The type of product--fruit, vegetable, grain, nut, etc.

c.       Whether the product grows on a tree, under the ground, on a bush.

d.      The part of the plant (root, stem, leaf, seed, etc.) that is used.

e.       Interesting facts.

4.      Bring the agricultural product to school.

5.      Read the clues to class.

6.      Classmates try to guess identity of product after each clue.

7.      Share product with class.

8.      Place quarter inch adhesive colored dots on world map to locate place where product grows now.

Concluding the Lesson

Encourage everyone to have a taste of each food item.  Students can draw and color a picture of each agricultural product to place next to a world map.  Attach a piece of string to the picture and to a map pin indicating where the product is grown.

Extending the Lesson

On explorations or travels to North and South America what agricultural products did the Europeans, Asians, or Africans bring with them?

Assessing Student Learning

Ask each student to share something interesting he/she learned about one of the agricultural products.

Additional Reading

Ehlert, Lois.  Eating the Alphabet: Fruits from A to Z.  Trumpet Club.

Encarta '95 CD-ROM, Microsoft, Seattle, WA.

Hays, Wilma and R. Vernon.  Food the Indians Gave Us.

GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS CLASSIFICATION MATRIX – GRADES           K-4   

Title:          Agricultural Exchanges – circa 1492          Author:     Doris Gott

Note:  See also Objectives Classification Outline in the lesson.

Handouts

AGRICULTURAL EXCHANGES # ____________

Write five clues to help your classmates identify the fruit, vegetable, seed, grain, leaf, etc.

1. __________________________________________________________________________________________

   ___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________________________________________________

   ___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________________________

   ___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________________________________________

   ___________________________________________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________________________________________

   ___________________________________________________________________________________________

On the map place a signal dot on the country where the product originated or where it is grown today.

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