Navigating the Great Lakes - Activities

Eagle Harbor Lighthouse, Keweenaw County Historical Society

NPS Photo

Keweenaw County Historical Society

Background

Not familiar with the Keweenaw Peninsula? Start here:

• Keweenaw National Historical Park Website
• Keweenaw County Historical Society

This lesson plan focuses on the Keweenaw County Historical Society, or KCHS for short. KCHS is made up of a group of dedicated volunteers who work to preserve and showcase 11 historic sites on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, United States. The various sites KCHS maintains are not only known for copper mining, but also shipping, commercial fishing, lumber, and even maritime history.

Although there are many themes that KCHS embodies, the focus of this lesson is going to be on the importance of shipping in the Great Lakes. From 1840 to around 1900, ships were the only way to move people, goods, copper, and other supplies into and out of towns on the Keweenaw Peninsula. Sailors faced great challenges and navigated safely using lighthouses. The Great Lakes waters flow from 602 feet all the way down to sea level. Ships are unable to pass over waterfalls such as Niagara Falls, and so locks were built to efficiently move ships between lakes.

In this lesson students will focus on learning about the danger and difficulties of shipping (fog, blizzards, gales, collisions, sandbars, rocky shores, fire, smoke, and explosions on board), the five great lakes and shipping ports, the locks that allow ships to transition between lakes, and major shipping events.

 

Video Activities for Navigating the Great Lakes

Introduction Video

As you watch the video, try to answer these questions:

1. What are some challenges sailors faced when sailing across the Great Lakes?
2. How did lighthouses and fog signals help sailors stay safe?
3. Why do you think shipping on the Great Lakes is so important?

 

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  Intro Video for the KCHS Maritime History Module

  Intro Video for the KCHS Maritime History Module

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 47 seconds

 

Video Tour of Lighthouse

As you watch the video, try to answer these questions:

1. Why do you think the lighthouse is colored a specific color?
2. What do you think the other buildings around the lighthouse are for?

 

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  Tour of Eagle Harbor Lighthouse

  Video tour of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse tower and living quarters.

  Duration:

  2 minutes, 7 seconds

 

Letter activity

Activity Objective
Think creatively and apply previously learned material to an open-ended prompt on safety and navigation in sailing the Great Lakes. Uses the linguistic and intrapersonal intelligences.

1. Hand out printouts of the letter paper. Introduce the activity as the students are now captains of their own ship on Lake Superior and have gotten lost in bad fog. They are worried, and they have to write a letter to their family/loved ones about what they are going to do.
2. Give them time to write out a simple letter that they can take home at the end of the day.

Letter Activity Template

 

Shipping Board Game

Activity Objective
Understand how slow and difficult the process of shipping on the Great Lakes is. Uses the bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, and spatial-visual intelligences.

1. Gather students into groups of 2-4.
2. Hand out printouts of the game board, paper pieces, and spinner to each group.
3. Read the instructions below and have the students start playing the game.
   1. Shipping Board Game Instructions:
      1. Cut out all pieces and spinning wheel.
      2. All pieces start at the same port, either Duluth or Detroit.
      3. One at a time, take turns spinning the wheel. Move the amount of spaces the wheel tells you to.
      4. If you are at a port and the wheel tells you to move backward, stay where you are.
      5. The first to the opposite port wins!
4. Once everyone is done, lead a short discussion which could include the following questions:
   1. What did you think of the game?
   2. Is there any strategy or does it feel random?
   3. Based on this game, do you think sailing on Lake Superior is easy or difficult?

Game Board Template
Spinner Template