Objectives

Students will discuss different modes of waterborne transportation today and during the settlement era in order to understand how and why waterways were important to settlement. Students groups will research a different type of watercraft used on Lake Champlain and apply their knowledge by matching their assigned mode of transportation to an historical scenario in which it was used.

Vermont State Standards

1.19 Research, 4.5 Continuity and Change; 4.6 Understanding Place; 6.4 Historical Connections

Materials

• Research materials on canoes: Of Sailing Ships and Sidewheelers (pp. 6-7)
• Research materials on bateaux: Of Sailing Ships and Sidewheelers (pp. 8-9)
• Research material on sailing canal boats: Lake Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats; This Lake Alive! (pp. 102-104); Of Sailing Ships and Sidewheelers (pg. 27)
• Research material on steamboats: This Lake Alive! (pp. 103-106); Of Sailing Ships and Sidewheelers (pp. 25-27); Lake Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats (p. 17)
• Research material on warships: Of Sailing Ships and Sidewheelers (pp. 21-24); This Lake Alive! (p. 101)
• Traveling Without Roads Study Questions: Canoe, Bateau, Sailing Canal Boat, Steamboat, and Warship [DOC]
• Drawing paper for each group
• Traveling Without Roads Historical Scenarios [DOC]

Instructional Plan I. Class Disucssion: Experiences with Watercraft

Begin by asking students if they have traveled on Lake Champlain, Otter Creek, or another lake or river. Encourage students to talk about their experiences with different types of watercraft: motorboats, sailboats, canoes, kayaks, ferries, cruise ships, etc. How do different types of watercraft work? When is one type of watercraft more appropriate to use than another?

Ask students how people and goods were transported before a road system existed in Vermont. How did Native Americans travel? Explorers, such as Samuel de Champlain? Early settlers? How did the colonists transport marketable products, such as timber and potash? What were the advantages and disadvantages of travel during different seasons? Record their answers.

II. Studying Types of Watercraft

Divide the class into four or five small groups, assigning each group an eighteenth/nineteenth century watercraft. Include canoe, bateau, ferry, sailing canal boat, steamboat and brig. Each group will research their assigned type of watercraft, using research materials provided in the classroom in order to complete the Study Questions.

When the Study Questions are complete, students are ready to share their knowledge. Give each group a handout including each of the historical scenarios and read them together as a class. Ask students to match their form of transportation to one of the scenarios. Be sure to give students time to discuss their ideas within their groups. Then ask students to defend their conclusion to the class, sharing information from their Fact Sheet.

You may to want to give students time to write responses to other groups' answers, or discuss their reactions within their groups. Do they agree or disagree with the other groups' conclusions? Why or why not?

Assessment

Collect the Fact Sheets and assess the quality of the group work and cooperation within the group. Assess each group "defense": were their conclusions logical, well-presented and based in fact (even if it didn't match the true account)? If you assigned a journal entry, check for completion and depth of comprehension.