The full episodes cannot be watched if you live in the UK, but some short clips can be found on the BBC's YouTube channel.
The Story of Exploration is a four-minute explanation of the science of exploration through time. The pace of the video is quite fast, and some of the vocabulary is tricky, that's why I haven't included any activities on the video, which is suitable for intermediate 2 students.
Self-study activity:
Follow these steps when watching The Story of Exploration:
- Watch the video through to get the gist what it is about.
- Read the transcript below and, after that, watch the video again without reading the transcript.
- Watch the video and read the transcript at the same time.
- Once you have gone through the three steps above, you will be able to watch the video comfortably as often as you wish.
It seems that we humans have a propensity for itchy feet, ever since our ancestors strolled out of Africa 100,000 years ago but it wasn't long before we realised that having effective means and methods are essential to proper exploration.
Around 400 BC, the Greeks used a rudimentary knowledge of the stars to navigate. Despite fears of sea monsters, one even ventured to strange northern lands of beer drinkers that turned out to be Britain.
Vikings appropriated wildlife to aid their exploration. Ravens were deployed from boats to guide them to new lands and the reward was the discovery of Iceland.
Wildlife-based navigation systems were rare, however. Most explorers opted for stellar guidance. Mediaeval Arabs refined navigation with accurate star maps and tools to chart their position and the Chinese invented a portable magnetic compass.
But navigation still had a way to go. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and discovered what he thought was the East Indies - hence his insistence on calling the people who lived there Indians. It took quite some time for anyone to realise that they were, in fact, Americans. Columbus's Indian faux pas was largely because he had no idea how far east or west he was. Calculating that meant knowing the time, which was impossible to do without reliable seagoing clocks and they didn't arrive until the late 1700s.
With location finally sorted out, others were adding another dimension to exploration. In 1783, two French brothers demonstrated their flying sheep experiment near Paris. They believed that ovine aviation was achieved by a special property of smoke they called levity. It was soon decided that the fun shouldn't be restricted to ruminants and man took to the air for the first time but unfortunately, man had no control over where the balloon was taking him.
American Samuel Langley realised that useful air travel meant power. He had some success with rubber bands and steam but more often than not, ended up on the ground or in the river.
By the time powered flight was reliably in the bag, most of the world had been explored. Time for a new challenge and a new destination.
In the 1920s, space pioneer Robert Goddard invented liquid-fuelled rockets. He even claimed a rocket could reach the Moon, but not everyone was convinced. The New York Times smugly pointed out that nothing can fly in a vacuum and even though a series of cosmic dogs, astro monkeys and spacemen suggested otherwise, it wasn't until the day after Apollo 11 launched that the paper finally conceded that a rocket can fly in a vacuum after all, stating, "The Times regrets the error."
Even landing on the Moon hasn't satisfied our wanderlust. We're roving on Mars, probing Saturn and voyaging beyond our solar system but the irony is, WE are not actually doing the exploring. We're now reliant on robots to be curious on our behalf.
H/T to Free Technology for Teachers.
