This activity will get you thinking about the Columbian Exchange, which is the focus of this unit. Here, you’ll think about the kinds of goods that were part of the Exchange. This will provide some insight into how the Columbian Exchange still impacts us today.

Your teacher has posted the names of different goods around the classroom. For our purposes, “goods” can include animals, plants, cultures, human populations, communicable diseases, technology, and ideas. Your job is to decide whether these goods came from the New World or the Old World. If you think something came from the New World, place a sticky note under that item. Don’t place anything under the goods that you think came from the Old World. After everyone has made their decisions, your teacher will tell you what came from where!

In this culminating activity in the causation progression, you will complete a full causal analysis of the causes and effects of the Columbian Exchange. You’ll practice analyzing causes and effects by categorizing them by time, role, and type. In addition, you’ll evaluate the most historically significant effects of this exchange and show your learning by creating a mini-book that answers a causal prompt. Analyzing the causes and effects of the Columbian Exchange and analyzing how this exchange completely changed the world by establishing global networks of exchange that impacted people, plants, and animals will help you understand its complexity and continued impact on our world.

The people living in the Americas had established networks of exchange long before Columbus arrived in 1492. Yet this connection to a new global network would forever change the world’s people, plants, and animals. The potato arrived in Europe, helping populations grow. Smallpox was brought to the Americas, eliminating 50 to 90 percent of the Indigenous population. Millions of enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas. Horses, which hadn’t set hooves on the American continents for thousands of years, became so common that many people still think they have always been part of the environment. That misunderstanding applies to many of the living things that were moved during the Columbian Exchange hundreds of years ago. In this activity, you’ll begin to sort out some of these misunderstandings by creating a mini-book that tells the story of the Columbian Exchange and its effects today.

Capturing and Categorizing Causes

1. Take out the Causation Tool (included in the Causation – Columbian Exchange worksheet) along with the Cause Cards and get into small groups.
2. Categorize the causes by time (long-, intermediate-, and short-term causes) and add them to the tool.
3. Annotate the causes by type and role, using the legend on the tool to help you remember how to annotate.
4. Next, watch The Columbian Exchange: Crash Course World History #23 and read the article “Investigating the Consequences of the Columbian Exchange.” While you watch and read, write down all of the effects of the Columbian Exchange that you learn about in the Effects box on the Causation Tool. Then, categorize the effects by annotating for type.

Creating a Mini-Book

1. Now that you’ve analyzed causes and consequences of the Columbian Exchange, you’re going to work on your own to create a mini-book focused on the effects of the Columbian Exchange. A mini-book is a way to share a story with words and pictures. Your mini-book will explain the most significant effects of the movement of people, plants, and animals. You can use the acronym ADE to help you determine significance:
   • Amount: How many people’s lives were affected by the cause/effect?
   • Depth: Were people living in the time period being studied deeply affected by the cause/effect?
   • Endurance: Were the changes people experienced as a result of this cause/effect long-lasting and/or recurring?
2. Follow the steps below to create a mini-book using a blank sheet of paper. Your book will end up having 16 small pages.
   • Fold the paper in half on the long side (hot dog).
   • Fold in half again the other direction, on the short side.
   • Fold in half one more time on the short side.
   • Open the paper back up. It should be divided into eight equal parts.
   • Fold your paper in half once on the short side (hamburger).
   • Cut the paper in half, starting at the fold.
   • Then, unfold the paper. Fold it in half on the long side (hot dog).
   • Pinch the ends together. You’ll see the pages starting to take shape!
   • Lay the paper flat and press down the pages of the book.
   • Finally, fold the book in half (along the creases).
   • Now you’re ready to create the content of your book!
3. The mini-book you create should answer the following question: What were the most significant effects of the movement of people, plants, and animals after the Columbian Exchange? Look at the Causation – Columbian Exchange Mini-Book Checklist (included with the Causation – Columbian Exchange worksheet) so you know specifically what to include in your book. Also note that for your mini-book, you need to choose one effect about the movement of people, one about the movement of plants, and one about the movement of animals.

The Columbian Exchange is arguably one of the biggest events to have changed our world since the appearance of humans because it moves us away from isolated continents toward an interconnected world. The exchange of diseases, plants, animals, and people increased the world’s complexity in unprecedented ways since the beginning of human history.

In this video, John Green discusses the Columbian Exchange and the changes that were brought on due to the interaction of the Old World and the New World. Understanding the fallout of what happens when previously isolated continents interact helps us get a sense of so much of recent history, such as why Europe became so powerful in the late 1400s and beyond, why Native American populations collapsed, and why Africans were sold into slavery.

Preview

The Columbian Exchange and its impact are explained, based largely on the book by Alfred Crosby. When we consider world history pre-1492, we really think about regions and nations, not worldwide interaction. The Columbian Exchange reshaped our world in dramatic ways.

Key Ideas—Factual

Think about the following questions as you watch the video:

• Into what four categories does John Green break the Columbian Exchange?
• How many American Natives died as the result of the arrival of the Europeans? Why did they die?
• Although it appears that most of the destruction that resulted from the Columbian Exchange was done by the Old World to the New World, what are the two things from the New World that negatively impacted the Old World?
• How were animals that were brought from the Old World to the New World revolutionary for the New World?
• How did New World plants have such an impact in Eurasia?
• How did the Columbian Exchange impact the movement of people around the world?
• Did Alfred Crosby (the writer of a famous book about the Columbian Exchange) think the Columbian Exchange was good or bad? Why?

Thinking Conceptually

At the end of the video, John Green asks if you think the Columbian Exchange was ultimately positive or negative. Pick one side or the other and be ready to provide an explanation to the class about whether the Columbian Exchange was a net positive or net negative for our world.

The Columbian Exchange connected formerly isolated continents and had lasting effects around the world. Some of the biggest consequences of this exchange are that the world is generally richer, crops are spread around the globe, the disease pool has become more homogenous, and it inequalities have increased around the world.

Some historians argue that the Atlantic slave trade may be the single most important event in the modern history of the world. This article explains how we can reconstruct the Columbian Exchange and its consequences using a variety of evidence including maps, books, and demography. Not only do we gain understanding about events so important to human history, but we also get insight into how historians construct these types of understanding.

Skimming for Gist

What was the Columbian Exchange and what were the consequences of it? Plants and animals were exchanged between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia. World populations changed as a result of this, both as a result of the spread of disease and the movement of people. There were many biological and cultural consequences of the Columbian Exchange.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions about collective learning:

1. When and what was the Columbian Exchange?
2. What are some of the things that moved east during the Columbian Exchange?
3. What are some of the things that moved west during the Columbian Exchange?
4. What were some of the intentional and what were some of the unintentional exchanges from this time?
5. What is “the great dying”?
6. According to the table in the reading, what were the main population trends in each of the regions listed from 1400 to 1700?
7. How did the author come to her conclusions about the population changes during the Columbian Exchange?
8. What does the author list as the consequences of the Columbian Exchange?

Thinking Conceptually

In this article, the author writes about some of the consequences of the Columbian Exchange. Can you think of other consequences that were not mentioned in this article?

Athanasius Kircher was a seventeenth-century scholar who wrote over thirty books on many subjects, including language, geology, and music. Kircher sought to understand the mysteries of his time by combining knowledge from the past with new ways of experimenting and forming theories. As it turns out, many of his theories were ultimately proven wrong. Yet, his relentless pursuit of knowledge pushed the boundaries of scientific discovery and helped later scholars find the correct answers.

This biography of Athanasius Kircher highlights one scholar's attempt to seek answers—and his dead ends and stumbles along the way. Kircher's story shows students that collective learning doesn't happen in a straight line. Sometimes, it's okay to take risks and get the answers wrong because even mistakes contribute to our understanding of the world.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What does the graphic biography tell you about Athanasius Kircher's early life?
2. What did Kircher do to test his theory of the subterranean connections? Was his theory correct?
3. How did Kircher's work contribute to the decoding of Egyptian hieroglyphics?
4. How does the page's design, text, and illustrations contribute to your understanding of Athanasius Kircher's story?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How does Athanasius Kircher's story add to what you’ve learned about collective learning so far in this course?
2. Can you think of other mistakes or wrong turns throughout history that have contributed to our understanding of the world?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

The Atlantic slave trade arose out of the desire of Europeans to be producers and not just middlemen and consumers of the goods that were being traded around the world. To become producers, they enslaved millions of Africans who knew how to grow the crops that the Europeans were not familiar with. This enslavement resulted in extreme brutality that sprung from pre-existing racist ideologies, but ultimately did allow Europeans to reach their economic goals.

The Atlantic slave trade, which allowed Europeans to become successful producers and the Americas to become more prosperous, is also one of the reasons inequalities still exist today for minority populations. Understanding the causes of the Atlantic slave trade can help us understand the long-standing consequences of human brutality.

Skimming for Gist

As a part of the European quest to become effective producers of commodities, they ended up enslaving Africans to help them reach their goals. Over 12 million Africans were enslaved and brought to the New World between 1500 and 1900. The environmental, political, and social consequences of this trade are still apparent in today’s world.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions about collective learning:

1. Why were Africans the targets of slavery and not people from another area of the world?
2. Who started the Atlantic slave trade and how long did it last?
3. How do we know so much about how many Africans were enslaved and where they went during this time?
4. According to the author, why did African enslavement go on so long?
5. What does the author mean when she writes, “the business of transporting slaves across the Atlantic had become a horrifying science.”
6. What did the Atlantic slave trade ultimately do for Europe?

Thinking Conceptually

Name some of the ways in which you still see impacts of the Atlantic slave trade in the world today and explain how they are connected.

The Columbian Exchange developed over the course of about 300 to 400 years, with numerous things being exchanged including plants, animals, people, diseases, cultures, languages, and so on. Understanding the progression and development of the exchange, and not just the Columbian Exchange itself, can help you gain a sense of the increasing complexity of the exchange and will deepen your understanding of the impact of each of kind of trade. In addition, it helps you understand the interconnected aspects of such an exchange, and how the interrelatedness of these historical events explains not only the consequences of the exchange, but also some of the causes.

In this activity, you’ll create a timeline as another way of examining the Columbian Exchange. Your teacher will break you into groups, and your group will be responsible for mapping the progression of the exchange of one of the four following things: plants, animals, people, or diseases. Your group’s timeline must include the following information and meet the following criteria:

1. A title for your timeline.
2. At least eight instances of exchange of that type of goods. For example, if you were assigned plants, you might mark the exchange of wheat, rice, apples, tomatoes, rubber trees, and so on.
3. These exchanges can be from Old World to New World, or New World to Old World, but you must have at least two of each type of exchange. For each instance, you must indicate if it’s Old World to New World or New World to Old World.
4. Before each instance of exchange on your timeline, you must include a few sentences about the factors that caused that exchange. For example, slaves were forced from the Old World to the New World because European businessmen did not know how to farm in tropical climates and took slaves to do the farming for them.
5. After each instance of exchange, the timeline must include a few sentences about the outcomes of that exchange. For example, potatoes were brought from the New World to the Old World and became a staple crop in Ireland, feeding many more people than before and contributing to an increase in population.
6. You must display everything on the timeline in a way that it is easy for others to read and follow.
7. A concluding sentence, tagline, or other piece of information that conveys what your group thinks was or is the biggest impact of the goods being exchanged. The information on the timeline should support this conclusion.
8. References showing where you got your information for the timeline.

Be prepared to present your timeline to the class. You may want to make your timeline using an online tool such as ChronoZoom (www.chronozoom.com), or by making something larger that is easily presented. You can use the information from this lesson as well as your own research to construct these timelines.

As other groups are presenting their timelines, think about the interconnectedness of each type of goods (plants, animals, people, or diseases). After each presentation, write down how your goods were related to the goods being presented. Your teacher will collect your thoughts about this at the end of class.

In this activity, you will demonstrate your knowledge by creating an infographic that explains the Columbian Exchange. This activity will allow you to show all that you’ve learned about the Columbian Exchange. The impact of the Columbian Exchange on the world is immeasurable, and it’s important that you have a grasp of this before moving onto other material.

In groups, you’ll create an infographic that demonstrates your knowledge of the Columbian Exchange. Part of this infographic will include information about how the Columbian Exchange relates to our world today.

Your infographic should include attention to the following:

• Topic: The topic of the infographic is specific in nature and is intended to inform or convince the viewer.
• Type: The type of infographic chosen (for example, timeline or informational) highly supports the content being presented.
• Objects: The objects included in the infographic are relevant and support the topic of the infographic.
• Data visualizations: The data visualizations present accurate data and are easy to understand.
• Style: Fonts, colors, and organization are aesthetically pleasing, appropriate to the content, and enhance the viewer’s understanding of the information in the infographic.
• Citations: Full bibliographic citations for all sources used are included.

In addition, you have to provide an explanation and demonstration of your knowledge of the following:

• GGoods of the Columbian Exchange. This includes plants, animals, people, and diseases.
• How these goods are interconnected.
• New World versus Old World.
• The Columbian Exchange’s impact on the world today.

Use what you wrote at the end of the last activity to help remind you of how the different goods are interconnected.

Your teacher will show you examples of infographics, if you’re not sure what they look like. Also, keep in mind that as you start to draft your infographic, you might want to narrow the topic down a bit. For example, you might decide to highlight one of the goods of the exchange while only providing secondary information about how the other goods are connected to the main one. Or, you might focus on the cultural impacts of the exchange or issues of social justice. You might also just focus on changes in demographics related to the exchange. There are tons of directions you can go with this—just check in with your teacher to ensure the scope of your idea isn’t too big or too small and that you’re covering the required topics.

Before you get started, review the Columbian Exchange Infographic Score Sheet and Checklist since this will show you how your infographic will be graded. When you’re done, you’ll probably present your infographic to the class, so be sure it looks great!