Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

We continued to integrate social studies (North Carolina history - Colonial era).  The students learned more about the Lost Colony and Sir Walter Raleigh.  They watched a video and then looked at the text of the transcript, looking for which information is important in the text. 

Here is the transcript:

Roanoke Colony is the greatest of the 16th century’s mysteries. An entire colony of 117 English settlers vanished without a trace, but its true importance transcends the mystery.

     Roanoke was the brainchild of one of England’s most leading visionaries, Sir Walter Raleigh. Indeed, without Raleigh’s drive to colonize, England might never have settled the Atlantic seaboard and gone on to dominate North America. Ever since Spain had ​sent back news of fabulous riches in the New World, all Europe had been ablaze with  thoughts of the wealth that must lie there ripe for the plucking. A few bold mariners, such as England’s Sir Francis Drake, were plundering the Spanish treasure fleets crossing the Atlantic from the Caribbean, but the drive to settle North America would fall to Sir Walter Raleigh.

     Raleigh was one of the 16th century’s swashbuckling heroes. Born in 1552, he became an explorer, soldier, and writer. At the age of 28, he gained the favor of England’s most farseeing monarch, Queen Elizabeth I. He soon convinced the Queen that England needed a permanent North American settlement funneling riches back to the mother country. In 1584, Elizabeth granted Raleigh a charter to colonize North America and establish a base from which to raid Spanish treasure fleets.

     Raleigh’s first expedition left England in April 1585. It established a colony on Roanoke Island in Pamlico Sound in present-day North Carolina. Raleigh called the region Virginia in honor of Elizabeth, the Virgin Queen. But struck with sickness and fear, the survivors returned to England in 1586 with Sir Francis Drake, who had been marauding Spanish ports in the Caribbean.
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     Undaunted, Raleigh sent a second expedition a year later. The group of 117 colonists included 17 women and landed at the same place on Roanoke Island. At first, it did better than the original colony, but the invasion of England by the Great Spanish Armada in 1588 delayed much needed supplies. When a supply ship returned in 1590, all of the settlers had vanished, and the only clue to their whereabouts was a post with the single word “CROATOAN” carved into the wood. As a result, the 16th century would close with no English colony in North America, but thanks to Raleigh’s vision, that would soon change with the founding of Jamestown in 1607.

In science, we made our own magnets using a sewing needle, plastic cap from a water bottle, a magnet, and a cup of water.  The students carefully took the needle and magnetized it by rubbing it against the magnet.  Then, the needle was gently placed upon the cap floating in the water.  After it settled, it aligned with the magnetic north.  

They also got to experiment with placing the magnet to the side of the cup and on the bottom to demonstrate that the Earth is actually one gigantic magnet.