Last updated: September 24, 2024
Lesson Plan
Geography: Navigation and Isolation on the Great Plains
A good sense of direction was critical to navigating trade routes.
NPS/D. Ocheltree
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.L.4, 4.L.4.a, 5.L.3, 3.SL.1, 3.SL.1.d, 4.SL.1, 5.SL.1, 5.SL.1.d, 3.W.2, 4.W.2, 4.W.2.d, 5.W.2
- State Standards:
- 4th grade History 2.1.e. Describe similarities and differences between the physical geography of Colorado and its neighboring states. Geography 2.2.a. Describe how the physical environ. provides opportunities for and places constraints on human activities
- Thinking Skills:
- Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
• What navigational tools were available to travelers along the Santa Fe Trail in the 1830s and 1840s?
• Name geographical aspects of the Plains which made navigation challenging.
Objective
Identify the navigational obstacles to migration through the Great Plains during the fur trade era.
Background
Overview Background: The southeastern Colorado trading post known as Bent’s Fort was established in 1833 along the Arkansas River bordering Mexico. As a major stop between Independence, MO and Santa Fe, NM, Bent’s Fort was a multicultural and international commerce hub on the Santa Fe Trail. Built on the homelands of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, deemed unorganized U.S. territory during this period, Bent's Fort traded primarily in buffalo robes procured by the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Traders and merchants from dozens of other Native American nations and Mexico successfully supplied, traded, and exported items here until 1849.
The lessons in this unit are based on and include excerpts taken directly from Josiah Gregg’s 1844 published journal titled The Commerce of the Prairies. As a young man, Josiah first embarked with a caravan on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. For the next nine years, he detailed the commerce, cultures, customs, ecology, and politics of the time. His insights detail firsthand experiences across the southern Great Plains during the fur trade era giving us a fuller picture of the lives and livelihoods for people at Bent's Fort.
The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 - Geography of the Plains: Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 - Riverways - Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 - Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 - Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 - Flora on the Plains: Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 - Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 - Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping
Lesson Activity Background: Learners will attempt to locate a destination based on indirect and limited information. They will provide and follow directions to a given location through written language and symbols. This activity is designed to connect students with the uncertainty one may feel traveling across the Plains for the first time during this period without complex navigational tools. It also reinforces dependence upon local human knowledges and representations as evidenced when Josiah Gregg's caravan received directions and a hand-drawn map from Big Eagle.
Prior knowledge of the fur trade era will help give this lesson context. See "Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint" in lesson materials.
Preparation
Materials needed:
- 3 magnetic compasses
- 7 small objects like paperclips, coins, magnets, etc.
- 3 copies of directions to a specific accessible location which include cardinal directions (written by teacher - example below)
- 3 "maps" showing a specific accessible location without reference points or directions indicated (drawn by teacher - example below)
Divide the whole group into six smaller groups. Provide three groups with a compass and written instructions which include only cardinal directions to follow toward their destination. Do not supply a map. Possible directions example: "From the front classroom door, travel west for 3 feet. Go north for 7 feet. etc."
Provide the remaining three groups with a "map" that visually identifies where the destination is, but without reference points and without written or cardinal directions. Possible map example: blank note card with an "x" marked in the appropriate quadrant.
Materials
This companion narrative text provides the lived experience of Josiah Gregg highlighting the navigational hardships and allure of the Great Plains landscape during this era.
Download Josiah Gregg Geography of the Plains Navigation and Isolation reading text
Reference images of compass and sextant referenced in Josiah Gregg text.
Download Image of compass and sextant
An optional 37-slide introduction to Bent's Old Fort with notes to build prior knowledge of the fur trade era before Lesson 1.
Download Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint
Lesson Hook/Preview
Lesson Activity: Instruct each group to select a navigator. There will be a total of six. Release all six navigators at the same time to reach the destination you've prepared using their designated tool (written instructions or map - see details in "preparation" field above.) Once the destination is located, begin "Procedure."
Procedure
1. As a whole group, call on the navigators to rate the effectiveness of their navigation tool. Ask students to consider if a compass with written directions or a "map" with no text or features is better.
2. Give groups 5-7 minutes to prepare for another round. Each group will choose a replacement navigator. Replacement navigators must remove themselves from the group while the rest work on creating directions. Assign each group the task of creating directions or a map for a new location of their choosing. There may be as many as 6 different destinations. Groups can choose to make either a map with no text or draft written instructions that include cardinal directions.
3. As groups are working, check in to encourage clear written communication.
4. When all groups have finished their maps or instructions, send navigators outside the room, set the various destination markers in place, and then begin second round.
5. When destinations have been located, assemble whole group together again. Call on second navigators to rate the effectiveness of their tool. Call on mapmakers or direction writers to comment on the difficulty of their task. Ask participants if their task was as easy as they anticipated.
6. Introduce Josiah Gregg by telling the group he spent nine years traveling the Great Plains in the 1830s often without a map, written directions, or the technology we have today. Assign reading "Geography of the Plains: Navigation Tools" section. Choose whole group read aloud, paired reading, or independent reading.
7. Before reading, define vocabulary words from the text.
8. After reading, ask students how the beginning group activity relates to the reading. (Students should recognize that Josiah Gregg's party got lost and Big Eagle drew a map to help their caravan.)
9. Display images of a period compass and sextant (in lesson materials). If desired, show the following short videos for background on how a compass and sextant work: How Do Compasses Work? (youtube.com) and Getting Started in Celestial Navigation (The Marine Sextant) (youtube.com) (All videos accessed August 7, 2024)
10. Ask students if they prefer being alone in wide open spaces or in crowds and to give reasons why. Prompt students to predict how Gregg feels in the open Great Plains considering the different landscape he's from (Tennessee and Missouri).
11. Read "Geography of the Plains: Isolation" section as either whole group read aloud, paired reading, or independent.
12. After reading, compare class predictions to Gregg's actual experience.
13. Conclude by viewing a video or two that helps students visualize the Great Plains landscape today such as: as Discover America's heartland, the Great Plains (youtube.com) or SPLT Protects the Endangered Shortgrass Prairie Ecosystem (youtube.com) or Gaining Ground for Prairie Wildlife - YouTube . (All videos accessed August 7, 2024.) Allow volunteers to describe the mood they feel when viewing the Great Plains.
14. Pass out Exit Ticket.
Vocabulary
compass - an instrument used to determine direction using a magnetized pointer
sextant - an instrument that measures the angular distance between two objects to determine altitude
latitude - a coordinate that marks a position on earth in terms of its north-south location
altitude - the height of an object in relation to sea level or ground level
eminence - a piece of rising ground
Assessment Materials
Josiah Gregg Lesson 1 Exit TicketCompanion Exit Ticket to Josiah Gregg Lesson 1's essential questions.
Rubric/Answer Key
Josiah Gregg Lesson 1 Exit TicketWhat navigational tools were available to travelers along the Santa Fe Trail in the 1830s and 1840s? Answers can include compass, sextant, astronomical observations, land features, riverways, person to person communication.
Name geographical aspects of the Plains which made navigation particularly difficult. Answers can include the vast flat prairie landscape which did not provide distinguishing land features such as mountains, trees, rocks, etc. Josiah Gregg likened the terrain to an ocean.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Given the language style of the 1830s, Gregg's narrative text would be best delivered as a read-aloud with pauses for clarification of meaning and paraphrasing. Encourage students to use context clues.
Enrichment Activities
Math extension: Use graph paper to form a coordinate grid and plot points showing a beginning and ending destination along the Santa Fe Trail. Assign a scale and calculate distance or land area.
Art extension: Sketch, color, paint, or chalk Gregg’s “grand prairie ocean” as an art piece.
Language extension: Write a poem on how the Great Plains may make a person feel - lonely, free, fearful, courageous, etc.
Science extension: Research the common native and/or invasive grass species where you live and identify the animal species that depend on them.
Technology extension: Create a timeline describing the progression of navigation tools from the 1800s to the present.
Geography extension: Collect several images of maps for the Borderlands region over the last two hundred years. Compare map features and political boundaries over time.
Additional Resources
A digitized version of the 1849 original two volume publication by Josiah Gregg is accessible here:
Commerce Of The Prairies (1849) Josiah Gregg : Victorian Vault : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive (Accessed August 14, 2024)
Santa Fe National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Related Lessons or Education Materials
The text used for this lesson and others in the unit is titled The Commerce of the Prairies published by the University of Nebraska Press, 1967. The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 - Geography of the Plains: Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 - Riverways - Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 - Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 - Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 - Flora on the Plains: Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 - Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 - Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping
Video Links that support this lesson:
How Do Compasses Work? (youtube.com) (Accessed May 14, 2024)
Getting Started in Celestial Navigation (The Marine Sextant) (youtube.com) (Accessed May 14, 2024)
Discover America's heartland, the Great Plains (youtube.com) (Accessed May 14, 2024)
SPLT Protects the Endangered Shortgrass Prairie Ecosystem (youtube.com)
Gaining Ground for Prairie Wildlife - YouTube (Accessed May 14, 2024)