Adapting, or Not

How explorers adapted, or failed to adapt, to the places they traveled.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 40

To adapt means to change the way you do things to fit a new place. Explorers met jungles, swamps, ice, and hurricanes that they had never seen before.
Some adapted. Cartier's crew was dying of scurvy until Iroquoian people showed them a tea made from a cedar tree. Balboa followed local guides through the jungle.
Traders who came later learned to paddle light birch-bark canoes, wear moccasins, and walk on snowshoes, just like the American Indians did.
Some failed to adapt. De Soto's soldiers wore heavy, hot metal armor in the warm, wet South, and wandered for years without good maps. Many got sick or died.
The lesson: the people who already lived in a place knew best how to live there.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS3G3.b — Describe how the early explorers (SS3H2a) adapted, or failed to adapt, to the various physical environments in which they traveled.