Explorer Take Home ProjectDirections

Become the explorer of your choice!Tell us everything that happens in your Fakebook,

because every Explorer needs to tell their tale!

For the explorer unit in Social Studies, you will make a Fakebook profile for an explorer of their choice. You will become the explorer and write journal entries for them using Fakebook to publish them so they can have photos and other people of the time can comment on the events. I have put the list of acceptable explorers on my website page that is just for Social Studies Explorers with a link to Bio.com for each of them. In addition, there is an example of a Fakebook for Christopher Columbus and the grading rubric.

What is Fakebook? It is a classroom tool that has taken the look of social media site Facebook and faked it so that it can be used for the classroom. We will use it this time to take a normal report and present it in a more modern way.

What is the goal or purpose of this project? The goal is to show that you know about your explorer, and just as importantly what they were looking for and what they found. Not all explorers found exactly what it was that they were looking for. The example is Christopher Columbus. He the focus of our in class example. Christopher Columbus was looking for India and Asia. He even thought that was what he found. Only later, did other explorers realize that he didn’t really find a water route to India, but rather a whole new land. The secondary goal is for you to show that you can write a journal entry giving details of events with matching text and graphic features. In this case they will be historical fiction. They are based on what happened, but we do not know exactly what the men thought or said to each other.

Use Mrs. Lopez’s Website to start off

Here you will find a list of explorers that are already linked to their biographies. You can go exploring right from the start to find a person that interest you.

What do I, the student, need to do?

  1. _____ Make a timeline of what happened in the explorer’s exploring time. This should include details to answer the following questions:
  2. What were they looking for when they set out?
  3. What land and water routes did this person explore?
  4. What did they find during their exploration?

There should be details with what happened on the trip. Have it end with when they got home or when they died. If they died, and something important happened afterwards, have a crew member add that detail. Some explorers may not have a clear date listed, such as October 1492. Please do your best with the dates based on the facts that you find. Add in months to make it believable.

  1. _____ Check in with Mrs. Lopez with timeline.Due______
  2. _____ Take timeline and turn them into journal entries onto Fakebook. Start with the first thing that happened and add them in order.
  3. _____ Make comments from other people, their king or queen, crew members, natives or other explorers.
  4. _____ Add a post that gives your resources
  5. _____ Add details about the person’s life and a few “friends” that reflect their real life.
  6. _____ Add pictures for the profile and cover photos.

If you do not have internet that will allow you to do this project from home, you must come tell Mrs. Lopez and do it during recess on the school computers in the classroom. Any late work, including work that is late for this reason, will be marked off 10% for each school day late. Do not wait until it is due to come and ask for help.

Trouble Shooting

How do you add images?

  1. Find picture
  2. Right Click on picture
  3. Click Save Image As
  4. Save into folder on computer
  5. Name it something that relates to the picture
  6. Save
  7. In Fakebook- click where you want to insert picture
  8. Choose file- pick picture you want

How do you submit a Fakebook Page?

Here are the steps to submit:

1. Complete project following guidelines

2. Save Fakebook

3. Click Share and copy the URL that it provides.

4. Email to Mrs. Lopez.

Mrs. Lopez will grade from there.

URL should look like this:
“Fakebook” project: Mrs. Lopez’s Grading Guide

Fakebook is a free application available for classroom use at

We are using it to create a journal that reflects

the interactive power of Facebook with a historical twist.

Points Awarded / Points Possible
All information that is included needs to be true and based on facts found in non-fiction books or online biographies. / 10
Friends
The Fakebook includes completed‘blocks’ on the left-hand side (e.g. “friends”, “hobbies”, “family”). / 2
Cover and Profile Images
The Fakebook includes a cover image at the top of the screen behind the main profile image. Award 2 marks only if it has an obvious connection to the explorer. / 2
Profile Information
The Fakebook includes profile information (birthday, family members, place of birth, job, interests…) / 2
Posts
The Fakebook “Wall” includes a series of (dated) posts which outline the key events taking place in the explorer’s life and career. This would include the 3 main questions.
  1. What land and water routes did this person explore?
  2. What were they looking for when they set out?
  3. What did they find during their exploration
/ 15
Comments
Other historically accurate characters comment on these posts offering their opinions on the events, achievements and failures being described. This means that in addition to pretending to be your own explorer, you need to pretend to be another historical figure that would have been in your explorer’s life. This could be another captain, a queen, or a native. At least 4 posts. / 4
Overall Judgement
Three further marks are available for the general impression created by the Fakebook – does it sound realistic / written clearly and so on?
This is where you can earn WOW points! / 5
Total Points Earned / 40

Example of a Ben Franklin Page