In 1609, Samuel de Champlain came to the lake that now bears his name. He encountered a rich culture in the Native Americans he met, a diverse wildlife and botany in the New World, and set into motion a legacy of European interest and involvement in North America. This multi-disciplinary curriculum explores a wide variety of interconnected topics: geology, watershed, ecology, Lake Champlain’s First Navigators, First Nations, Europeans in the New World, Samuel de Champlain, and Mapmaking.

Drawing on a diverse array of primary documents, journals, images, and prints, the curriculum stimulates active participation and inquiry. Engaging classroom activities help students examine the multiple and varied perspective involved in our shared history, including examination of implications and repercussions of the alliances and conflicts generated by the meeting of cultures.

Contributors & Authors:

Joe & Jesse Bruchac; Kevin Dann, SUNY Plattsburgh; Elsa Gilbertson, VT Division for Historic Preservation; Kate Messner, Educator and Author Willard Sterne Randall, Champlain College; Joan Robinson, Flynn Center for the Performing Arts; Andre Senecal, UVM; Tracy Truzansky, ECHO Center for Lake Champlain; Mike Winslow, Lake Champlain Committee; Dr. Frederick Wiseman, Abenaki Tribal Historian. And many from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum: Eloise Beil, Joanne DellaSalla, Jeffrey Meyers, Erick Tichonuk, and Matthew Witten.

Download this curriculum below. Files are in PDF format. Be sure to start with the Introduction first! “

– Curriculum description, Navigating the Champlain Valley 1609: Quadricentennial Curriculum by Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. 2009.

Publisher:  Lake Champlain Maritime Museum 
Year: 2009