Sailors improved on many of the tools used in navigation to help them in their long journeys across an ocean. On this site from the Mariners' Museum, find many of these tools, perhaps in use already in the 15th century, but made even...

Detailed introduction on exploration and trade during the Renaissance. Provides an overview of the tools created during the Middle Ages that made such travels by sea possible as well as insight into the types of goods traders sought in...

This is an ongoing activity where students take monthly temperature measurements, and make observations of the weather and changes in the environment, at the same location in the schoolyard each time. They will make and use an astrolabe,...

Scroll to the bottom of this page to access activity resources and lesson plans that encourage students to explore an understand the practicalities and difficulties involved in sailing to new places during the Age of Exploration.