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Expedition Diaries

Smithsonian Institution Libraries


These exercises and lesson plans are designed to accompany and enrich the study and discussion of the June 2004 Transit of Venus.

 

 

Goal:

Students choose an expedition to research, form expedition teams, keep individual diaries and compare diaries at the end of simulated expedition.

Grade Level:

7-12

Objectives:

  • Identify and use different source documents for research
  • Analyze and evaluate the information in source documents
  • Compare types of sources to each other and to other types, e.g., letters to diaries to official records, and assess utility
  • Use source documents to create comparable but fictional accounts of an expedition
  • Subject Area or Standard:

    History, Creative Writing

    Materials Needed:

    • Internet access or printed documents from the various expeditions
    • Maps and globes

    Websites:

    Simulations of Transits from 1631 through 2004
    http://www.venus-transit.de/TransitMotion/index.htm
    American Transit of Venus Expeditions, 1882
    http://www/aas/prg/publications/baas/v27n4/aas187/S034002.html
    Drawings of the Transit of Venus by Captain James Cook and Charles Green
    http://star.arm.ac.uk/history/transit.html
    The 1874 Expedition
    http://www.melbourneobservatory.com/19thCentury.htm
    The Voyage of the Endeavor 1769
    http://www.melbourneobservatory.com/18thCentury.htm
    The 1769 Transit of Venus, The Baja California Observations
    http://www.nhm.org/research/publications/Baja_Cal_Travel/baja46.html
    The Endeavor Journals and an interactive map
    http://www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/southseas
    Budget of US Naval Observatory for previous transits
    http://www.usno.navy.mil/pao/History/key_legislation.shtml
    The South Seas Project
    http://www.jcu.edu.au/aff/history/southseas/biogs/P000085b.htm
    Letters from Mr. Ward V. Ranger of the Transit of Venus Expedition to China
    http://web.syr.edu/-rcranger/wardv.html

    Resources:

    Chasing Venus
    Smithsonian Institution Libraries Exhibition, March 2004 to January 2005, Smithsonian Institution Libraries Gallery, National Museum of American History, Washington, DC

    Chasing Venus
    Smithsonian Institution Libraries Online Exhibition, March 2004 to January 2005, http://www.sil.si.edu/exhibitions/Chasing-Venus.htm

    Procedures:

    1.Students form expedition teams and choose one of the expeditions for research.
    2. Students read accounts of the various expeditions and look at source documents from the internet and the Smithsonian "Chasing Venus" display
    3. Individually, student will role play an expedition member and keep a diary of the travels and of the actual Transit.
    4. Students present highlights from their diaries and compare to diaries of team members and to diaries from other teams.

    Alternatives:

    Students participate with students from other countries in the ESO global transit project. Note: Requires teacher sponsorship and notification of ESO in advance.
    http://www.eso.org