Target audience and setting
The target group for these lessons is a 10th grade World History class during their unit focusing on the Age of Exploration
Content
Our history classrooms give a lot of airtime for the well-known European explorers, Columbus, Pizzaro, Henry the Navigator, Ferdinand Magellan, and others. However, another notable explorer who often receives less attention is China’s Zheng He. He sailed throughout Southeast Asia, Arabia, and the Middle East for Ming Dynasty China with an enormous fleet of 300 ships (some over 400 feet long) and 28,000 people. This impressive voyage took place nearly 100 years before Columbus’ three ships stumbled upon the shores of the America’s.
This voyage is interesting to contrast with the later European explorers by looking at the sheer size of Zheng He’s fleet and how the nature of his voyages were both similar and different from European colonizers. The goal of this lesson will be for students to analyze the expedition of Zheng He and interpret images to determine the significance of Zheng He’s fleet.
Process
To introduce this lesson, I will show a short presentation and providing background information on the voyages of Zheng He. Following the video, I will present students with a few primary source image documents and divide them into breakout rooms. Students will be able to analyze the images to answer questions about them in a Google Form about their significance.
Resources for learning
Zheng He PBS World Explorers: Link
Google form: Link
Delivery considerations
This lesson will be delivered remotely using Google Slides featuring Nearpod add-ons and Google Forms. This strategy will allow the lesson to be interactive in a remote setting.
Image Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voyages_of_Zheng_He.pngcanv
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_treasure_ship#/media/File:WorldShips1460.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_treasure_ship#/media/File:ZhengHeShips.gif
https://picryl.com/media/island-of-harmuz-or-ormus-b7c93b
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He#/media/File:Chen_Zhang’s_painting_of_a_giraffe_and_its_attendant.jpg
Nicolas, I am very exited to hear your lesson. I agree, we hear far too much about Columbus, et. al, and much less about China’s Zheng He. If what I’ve heard about him on the often suspicious History channel is true, you should have plenty of legends to sift through and teach – can’t wait to hear.