Real Shipwrecks of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River

A WebQuest for 5th Grade Social Studies

Introduction

Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River hold in its depths an extensive history of shipwrecks and rescues between 1840- 2002. This information is based on interviews with captains, crew members, observers from land, and others directly involved in the sailing of ships on Lake Ontario, and the St. Lawrence River. You will be viewing a treasure chest of factual articles that has been available on various websites that make up Ontario’s rich marine heritage.

Task

You have had an introduction to the era of schooners and steamships on Lake Ontario and The St. Lawrence River. Your task will be to investigate with a partner, a shipwreck of Lake Ontario or The St. Lawrence River, and write a brief news article about it. Your articles about shipwrecks will be published in a local newspaper. What kind of heroes, sailors, ships, gold, and pirates will you discover as you read about real shipwrecks?

Your task in this web quest is the following:

1) Search the provided websites for information on real-life shipwrecks.

2) Answer the questions on the provided paper that you and you partner have been asked to answer.

3) Locate the beginning and end of you ship’s journey on your provided map of the United States.

4) Write your news article with your partner using the provided template.

5) You and your partner will write the 1 page rough draft of the news article using the word processor with 14 font in Times Roman style.

6) You and your partner will both edit the rough draft for spelling, punctuation, and paragraphs.

7) You and your partner will insert interesting vocabulary and nautical terms to make your article more interesting using a thesaurus, and nautical terms using and the website.

8) You and your partner will insert a nautical photograph into your article using the internet.

9) You and your partner will share the completed articles of the shipwrecks with the rest of your classmates. This will be followed by a class discussion.

The Process

Step 1 :The entire class will be divided into assigned groups of two using your student numbers. The student with the lower number is the crew captain and is responsible for keeping the crew on course for the time and will answer his/her list of questions. The student with the higher number is the boatswain. This is the crew record keeper and is responsible for the safety and maintenance of the group logs or records. The boatswain will answer his/her list of questions. You are now being assigned to research a ship by your student number.

1) Students 1 &2 will have the ship Homer Warren http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/140-year-old-canadian-steamer-homer-warren-has-been-discovered.aspx

2) Students 3 & 4 will have the ship Orcadian http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/shipwreck-explorers-discover-1850s-canadian-schooner-lake-ontario.aspx

3) Students 5 & 6 will have the ship Etta Belle http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/152-year-old-schooner-discovered-in-lake-ontario.aspx

4) Students 7 & 8 will have the ship Milan http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/discovery-of-an-early-1800s-schooner-in-lake-ontario.aspx

5) Students 9& 10 will have the ship Lucy J. Latham http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/shipwreck-explorers-discover-1850s-canadian-schooner-lake-ontario.aspx

6) Students 11& 12 will have the ship Bavaria http://mimufon.org/1980%20articles/TheGreatLakesTriangle.htm

7) Students 13 & 14 will have the ship George A. Marsh http://www.adventuredives.com/marsh.htm

8) Students 15 & 16 will have the ship David W. Mills http://www.dreamscape.com/pchurch/scuba/mills.html

9) Students 17 & 18 will have the ship Sir Robert Peel http://bobsnautical.50megs.com/photo5.html

10. Students 19 & 20 will have the ship Speedy http://www.jwfishers.com/nr/nr163.htm

11. Students 21 & 22 will have the ship US Coast Guard Boat 56022 http://www.shipwreckworld.com/story/divers-locate-coast-guard-boat-sunk-in-1977.aspx

Other Helpful Sites:

www.schoonerman.com

www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck

Step 2 :The captain (lower number) has the following questions:

What were the weather conditions like when the ship set sail?

What was the first indication of trouble that the crew members had?

What did the crew do to try to overcome their difficulties? Describe this in detail.

What caused the ship to sink?

How did the survivors find safety?

What unique facts did you learn about this shipwreck?

The boatswain (higher number) has the following questions: most of this information can be found on www.boatnerd.com/swayze/shipwreck

The name, serial number, dimensions, type of ship, and year ship was built.

The place of departure and endpoint of the ship.

The date of the wreck.

The cargo and the name of the captain, how many crew members aboard, how many perished and survived.

If the shipwreck has been found describe the condition of the ship, its location, the date it was found, the names of the people who discovered it, and the equipment that was used to search it.

Step 3: Boatswain- Locate your ship’s route on the provided map.

Step 4: Captain and Boatswain; Fill out the following History Frame:

History Frame

Title of Event Authors

Name, type of ship, dimensions, year ship was built. The name of port where the ship left from and the date. The year the ship sank. The cargo the ship was carrying and the ship’s destination. State the name of the captain and the number of crew.

Key episodes or events: State the weather conditions that the ship set sail in. Describe the route that the ship was taking. Describe the problem/problems that the ship encountered. Explain what the crew and captain did to try to solve the problem. What made the ship finally go down? Discuss the rescue if any was made by another ship. State how many people perished and how many survived. Describe the location where the ship went down. Explain any unique facts about this shipwreck.

Conclusion, Outcome: Has the shipwreck been recently discovered in Lake Ontario? If yes, describe when, where, by who, in what condition, are there photos, and what did the people use to explore the shipwreck? Have any parts of the shipwreck been transported to a museum?

Step 5: With your partner write the 1 page rough draft with 14 font in Times Roman style

Step 6: You and your partner will both edit the rough draft for spelling, punctuation, spelling, and paragraphs.

Step 7: You and your partner will insert interesting vocabulary and nautical terms to make your article more interesting using a thesaurus, and nautical terms website

Step 8: You and your partner will insert a nautical photograph into your article using the internet.

Step 9: You and your partner will share the completed articles of the shipwrecks with the rest of the class. This will be followed by a class discussion.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated individually as well as receiving a group grade.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Quality of Analysis	Students left 3 or more questions unanswered.	Students answered almost all questions except 1 or 2 items.	Students answered all research questions adequately	Students answered all required questions and provided additional information
Quality of Writing	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization and clarity makes the article difficult to understand.	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization and clarity is not satisfactory. Vocabulary is only used 1-2 times.	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization, and clarity demonstrate an average level of performance. 2-3 vocabulary words used	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization, clarity, and vocabulary demonstrate a high level of performance.
Presentation of article	Identifiable performance characteristics indicate that the student was having difficulty reading the words in the article.	Identifiable performance characteristics indicate that the student was not prepared to read the article, and was not projecting his/her voice.	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization quality of voice, and eye contact level with audience show average level of performance.	Identifiable performance characteristics such as organization, quality of voice, and eye contact with audience show highest level of performance.

Conclusion

Students will present their articles to the class. Afterwards there will be discussion starting with 1) What are your observations concerning the reasons for the various shipwrecks? 2) How could have these tragedies been avoided? 3) What were the schooners and steamships used for in the 19^th century? 4) Why should we understand the marine heritage of Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River?

Credits & References

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page