Students in Mr. Rassler’s fifth-grade class studied early explorers by participating in a deep sea dive for artifacts. Rassler set the stage for learning to engage students in social studies. Here’s what some of the students in his class had to say:

What explorers did you learn about? 

Ava: Columbus, Ponce de Leon, Jacques Cartier, John Cabot and Coronado, to name a few.

Once you discovered the artifact, what did your team learn?

Nya: First, you had to identify the artifact, what it was made of and what it did. Then we needed to determine if it was brought to the Americas by the explorers, or if the explorers were bringing in back to Europe.

What kind of artifacts did you find?:

Jaylee: We found gold coins, flags, a compass and an astrolabe. The compass and the astrolabe helped the early explorers navigate from Europe to the New World.

What was your favorite part of this discovery?

Jaylee: I liked learning how the Native Americans traded with the explorers.

Nya: I liked learning more about history and what the explorers brought to the Americas and what they discovered.

Ava: I liked learning how they could survive with so little and how they used the tools. Plus, exploring the shipwreck was a fun activity.