For Educators: Teaching Units & Lesson Plans:

Preparing for the Trip

Lesson Plan 1: How do you plan?

OBJECTIVES

Students will:

• analyze data from primary documents and identify and classify objects needed for the expedition
• use map skills to compare the size of the U.S. in 1803 with its current size; identify waterways used for the expedition; identify landforms that were natural obstacles for the expedition; and estimate the distance covered in the expedition

MATERIALS

OPENING

Read aloud excerpts from Jefferson's Instructions to Lewis. Guide the class in a discussion about the purpose of the expedition. Using "who, what, when, where and why," gather information from the document. The document can also be used as a student activity.

PROCEDURE

1. Using a current U.S. map and the Arrowsmith map of 1803, compare the size of the U.S. from 1803 to the present. Students will brainstorm the similarities and differences of each map, record their ideas, and report to the whole class; teacher will record answers on chart paper. Discuss why the maps look different. What has changed in the last two hundred years? (map technology, what is known about the land, number of states, number of cities, etc.)
2. On the modern map locate the waterways used for the expedition and natural landform barriers, such as mountains. Use the map scale to estimate the distance traveled. While the expedition officially began at the St. Louis area, Lewis traveled from Washington, D.C., to Pittsburgh, then down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, then north to St. Louis. Students should compare distance by river to modern distance by road.
3. Explain that Lewis had not traveled that far west before and that no Americans had traveled by land all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Teacher asks, "How would you prepare for a trip to an unknown area? How could you predict what supplies you'd need to take along?"
4. Divide the class into cooperative groups of four to five per group with a recorder and reporter in each group. In groups, brainstorm a list of items they think would have been necessary for Lewis and Clark's expedition, based on the information in Jefferson's Instructions to Lewis. This is a preliminary list. It should include types of information Lewis would need to know, as well as types of supplies he would need to purchase.
5. Reporters share responses with the whole class; teacher records items on chart paper. Save this list to use again in Lesson 4.

CLOSING

Teacher says, "Summarize the purpose of Lewis and Clark's expedition. Tell the estimated distance and duration of the journey." Elicit responses from a number of students in each group.

SUGGESTED FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Journal writing: Write a journal entry from Lewis's point of view from April 1803 in Philadelphia. Tell about the purpose of your expedition, the estimated distance and duration, and what kinds of supplies you think you'll need for your expedition.