Moving to the Ohio Territory

A WebQuest for 4th Grade Ohio Studies

Designed by
Mark Stahl  

Introduction | Task1 | Task 2 | Task 3

  Introduction

Imagine that you, with your family, are pioneers in the year 1799. You are moving from Connecticut to the Ohio Territory to begin a new life. How might you have traveled? What route would you have taken to get you safely to your destination? What hardships might your family have encountered traveling through the wilderness?

Task 1.

You will locate Connecticut and the Ohio Territory on a United States map. You will name the states through which you will pass traveling from Connecticut to Ohio. You will identify major landforms you will encounter.

  Resources:

  Process:

        Read the story, Aurora Means Dawn by Scott Russell Sanders. You may read by yourself or with a partner. After reading, click here for an outline map of the United States. On the map locate the state of Connecticut. Color it red. Find the Ohio Territory. Color it blue. Recall from the story the Sheldons’ means of travel.  Through which states must they have passed? Write the names of these states on the bottom of the your outline map. Trace the route you think they traveled with your blue crayon. Now, click here to look at a physical map of the eastern United States. Do you see any landforms that could have caused their journey to be difficult? On the bottom of your outline map, write two landforms that you think could have made their trip harder.

A Rubric for Evaluation:

Located Ohio and Connecticut

      20%

Colored each state the correct color

      40%

Traced the route the Sheldon family traveled from Connecticut to the Ohio Territory

 

       60%

Named the states through which the Sheldons passed

  

       80%

 

Named two major landforms the family would have encountered

 

      100%

Conclusion

        Nice job! You have identified the route most likely taken by a family of early  pioneers who moved to the Ohio Territory in 1799. You also named two landforms that may have made their trip difficult.

           You learned that this family traveled in a wagon. Do you think this was the only mode of transportation used by pioneers to reach Ohio? Could there have been an easier way to travel? Could there have been a better route to take?

Task 2.

  You will decide which of five routes from the east to the Ohio Territory would have been the best for pioneers moving west to have taken.

Resources:

  Process:

        Click here to print out a map that shows different routes pioneers could have taken to travel from the east to the Ohio Territory. Study the different routes. Compare this map with the physical feature map (click here). Do you notice any landforms that may have made any of the routes more difficult than the others? Which route do you think would have been the best? Consider the things pioneer families would have had to take on their journey. Which route would have been the fastest? Which one would have been the easiest?

   A Rubric for Self-Evaluation: 

 

    YES

     NO

Identified major landforms along each route

 

 

Thought about items pioneers would be carrying

 

 

Thought about which route might be fastest

 

 

Thought about which route might be easiest.

 

 

Decided which route would be best

 

 

Conclusion:

        Congratulations! You thought about the things you would have to take with you and the landforms that could cause difficulties. You found the way that you thought would be best to travel from the eastern part of the United States into the Ohio Territory. Now you’re ready to tell about the trip. Read on…

Task 3.  

        You will pretend you are a pioneer moving west into the Ohio Territory. You will keep a journal describing your journey.

  Resources:

Process:

        Think about what life for a pioneer family would have been like as they traveled west through the wilderness. Write a journal with one or more entries describing a day’s journey. What things would you have seen? What landforms did you see along  the way? What things might have happened? What things did you have to do to help your family? Make illustrations if you would like.

        A Checklist for Self-Evaluation:

                 To Do My Best Job:

I told two or more things that happened on each day about which I wrote.

 

I described two or more things I saw on each day about which I wrote.

 

I told what my chores were each day.

 

I told what my parents, brothers and/or sisters did.

 

I told what landforms we saw.

 

Conclusion:

        You have completed a journal telling about part of your travels to your new home in Ohio. Once you get there, you’ll have to begin constructing a shelter, clearing the forest, finding food, raising crops, protecting yourself, and many other things that pioneer families had to do in the wilderness. Good luck!!!

 Credits and References

Thanks to:

        Ohio: Adventures in Place and Time.  New York:  Macmillan/McGraw – Hill, 2000