Knighthood and Chivalry
Introduction
The Renaissance was a wonderful period of
renewed interests and exciting new ideas for the Europeans. Among the
renewed interests of sciences, art, music and exploration was the increased
interest in the military and knighthood. Knighthood and chivalry became an
important part of the Europeans military during the Renaissance era and is still
today considered and an important part of history. Today all over the
world Renaissance fairs take place to celebrate the great renaissance culture.
As you research the websites provided on this site consider what duties a knight
has, how they are expected to present themselves, and what a knight might look
like.
Tasks
There are two
tasks you must complete to successfully finish this WebQuest:
1.
Explore the provided website links and complete a quiz based on the
information presented in these web sites.
2.
Write a code of chivalry for the Whitewater Middle School for your fellow
students to follow.
Task
1
Use the following links to
locate articles and information about knighthood and chivalry.
Read each site and use them as a reference when completing the quiz. The
quiz you will take will be based on the information within these websites.
Link #1
Music
During the
Renaissance, music was an important part of daily life. People went to festivals
where music was played, they listened to musical storytellers, they sang folk
songs, and they heard music at church. Unfortunately, it was really hard to
write out music because there was no one kind of way to write it. Also, the only
way to make a copy was to write the whole song over again. This is why the
church was so important in renaissance music. The churches had monks and nuns
who devoted their lives to finding better ways of writing down music so that
other people could perform it
Complete
the next two tasks.
Use
your imagination and creativity.
Task 1
Pretend that
you are a famous news reporter from the Renaissance. It is your job to find as
much information about a famous composer as you can. You will write an article
that will make the reader feel like they really know the composer. When you
write your article remember to ask the famous question words: who are
you, what do you do, where do you live, when were you born,
how do you live, and why do you compose. A
good way to start your article is to find out where the composer grew up and
lived.
Choose from one
of the following musicians:
Guillam Du Fay
Josquin Des Prez.
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/josquin.html
http://www.educationplanet.com/search/redirect?id=76733&mfcount=7&mfkw=renaissance%20music&startval=0
Midi files:
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/emusic/medieval.html
Task 2
Pretend you are
a traveling musician. You go from town to town and sing songs that tell stories
about where you have been, and things you have seen. Here is an example of
someone who might give you a musical message.
To
the tune of Mary had a Little Lamb:
You
were sick yesterday, yesterday, yesterday
You
were sick yesterday, and here is your homework.
Two
pages of math homework, math homework, math home work
Two
pages of math homework, and one Spanish worksheet.
Now listen to a
song from this web site :
http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcclark/emusic/medieval.html.
Create words to go along with one of the songs. Please choose a song that is
less than 45 seconds long.
Also, create an
assortment of instruments to use as your accompaniment. Use this page to help
you decide.
http://www.educationplanet.com/search/redirect?id=5195&mfcount=7&mfkw=renaissance%20music
Evaluation
Task one:
Did you answer
the questions about the composer?
Did you finish
in time?
Task two:
Did your new
verse fit the rhythm of the song?
Did you include
instruments?
Return to Task List
Science and
Inventions
Introduction
The
middle ages were a period of European history about 1000 years long that
extended from the last Roman emperor until the Renaissance (476 A.D. to about
1450 A.D.). During this time the
Roman Catholic Church was very powerful. The Church did not like ideas that challenged its authority
and it was a time that inventive thinking was not favored.
The Renaissance followed the middle ages and during this time modern
science got its start. Renaissance
means “rebirth”. From the early
1300s to mid to late 1500s many factors, such as trade and exploration, came
together to promote a “rebirth” in scientific interest.
There was also a renaissance in other fields such as the arts, literature
and government. Many of the old
techniques and writings from ancient Rome and Greece were studied and many new
techniques were invented. Two of
the greatest scientists and inventors of the Renaissance were Leonardo da Vinci
and Galileo Galilei. These two set
the stage for a lot of modern sciences and inventions.
Task
1: (about 10-15 minutes)
Leonardo
da Vinci designed a number of devices. He
anticipated many inventions that we now have in the modern world.
He also made many devices that worked in his time.
Go to the following web site and look at the machines that Leonardo
designed. See if you can tell what
they were designed for. All that
you need to do is follow the instruction for the game that are listed at the
site. Also, please record the
number of correct uses that you got on the first try. The
URL links in this exercise are copyrighted and are from the Boston
Museum of Science, Science Park, Boston, MA 02114,
http://www.mos.org/home.html
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/LeosMysteriousMachinery.html
Food
for Thought (just stuff to think about):
Most
of the machines that Leonardo designed used only man power to operate.
He once designed a helicopter. In
his day and age this was just a fanciful invention.
Why do you think that this is the case?
In the Renaissance there were many city-states that tried to gain control
of a region. Wealthy families that
would hire artists and inventors often ran these cities.
Leonardo was one of the persons hired by a city-state and even though he
was a pacifist many of his machines were designed for war.
Do you think that this might occur today even though we do not have
city-states?
Extras:
If
you want to see some of the modern machines that Leonardo anticipated and his
idea of how they worked go to: http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/VisionsoftheFuture.html
You
might also be interested in seeing other inventions and applications of
Leonardo. If so go to:
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsWorkshop.html
Interesting
things about Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo
was a true " Renaissance" man. Today
if someone is said to be a " Renaissance" person they know about many
things. Leonardo was accomplished in many areas of science and art.
One of the interesting facts about him is that he wrote backwards so that
his writing could only be read in a mirror.
To see more about da Vinci go to http://www.mos.org/leonardo/bio.html
.
Task
2: (about 15-30 minutes)
Galileo
Galilei was one of the fathers of modern science.
Like Leonardo da Vinci he was another Renaissance man.
He was adept in a number of areas. One
of Galileo's biggest contributions to modern science was the idea the scientific
data supporting the idea that the Earth moved around the Sun.
Copernicus (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm) and other came up with the idea but Galileo had the data. This was not a popular idea with the Roman Catholic Church.
They preached that the Earth was the center of the universe, that all
planets, moons and stars moved about the earth and that each celestial body was
perfect. They were very inflexible
about this. They even burned
Giordano Bruno (http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Bruno.htm) at the stake for teaching that the Earth moved about the Sun. When Galileo published a book on his findings that the Earth
moved about the Sun the Church arrested him and tried him in front of the
Italian Inquisition. They found him
guilty of unholy thinking and made him say that all his work was wrong and that
he did not believe the things he said in his book. After his trial Galileo was getting up from his knees after
"confessing" his crimes to the Italian Inquisition and he muttered
"E pur si muove" which means "Never-the-less it still
moves". This meant that he
thought that he was right and the Church was wrong. The
URLs in this exercise are from a variety of sources including but not
limited to "The Internet History Sourcebooks, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook.html;
Peter Landry, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, peteblu@blupete.com
; Lycos, Inc., Carnegie Mellon University< Pittsburgh, PA, http://www.lycos.com/lycosinc/legal.html#copy
; Keith Pickering, Watertown, MN, http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/author.htm
; Navigator, http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/
; Institute and Museum of the History of Science of Florence, Italy,
http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/4/index.html
Go to the web site ( http://kids.infoplease.lycos.com/ce6/people/A0858326.html
) and try to find the data that supports the idea that the Earth moves around
the Sun.
Look for another group of
planets or moons that move around each other (this would suggest that other
systems exist that do not move around the earth).
Look for a celestial body such as a moon that is not perfect.
Look for a planet that might have phases such as the moon has phases
(this would mean that that planet must go around the Sun and not the Earth).
List the data that you find. For
the complete bibliography and all the information on Galileo and his theory go
to: http://r.hotbot.com/r/hb_res_comp_5/http://versaware.reference.lycos.com/getpage.asp?book=FWENCOnline&page=009000086.asp
This is a long site but it has everything.
One other thing, Pope John Paul II in October 1992 acknowledged the
Vatican's error in condemning Galileo. .
Food
for Thought (just stuff to think about)
One
of the things that drives science is money.
Scientist often explore areas that have the potential to produce money.
Think about the time that Galileo was alive.
What was going on in the exploration of the Earth?
Would good telescopes be useful? One
of the ways that ships navigate from place to place is called "Celestial
Navigation". (To see how
Columbus got around go to http://www1.minn.net/~keithp/cn.htm
) Celestial Navigation involves the
use of stars and planets and instruments to measure the them.
For the measurements to be accurate one must understand how the stars and
planets move. It turns out that
economic conditions and the desire to come up with a good navigation system
finally ended the idea that the Sun goes around the Earth.
Money talks. Are there any
areas of science that are being fueled by money today?
Think about the medical industry and agriculture.
If you are really interested in math and navigation go to: http://www.tecepe.com.br/nav/inav_c11.htm
Another
Project:
To
understand how phases of a planet work you might try setting up a model.
Set it up with the Earth in the center and a planet and Sun going around
the Earth. Look at how the sunlight
would shine on the planet. Then try
setting it up with the Sun in the center, the planet in an orbit and the Earth
in a bigger orbit. Look at how the
sunlight shines on the planet in this model.
This second model is exactly what Galileo proposed.
To learn more about astronomy got to: http://versaware.reference.lycos.com/getPage.asp?book=FWENCOnline&page=002001322.asp
Interesting
things about Galileo Galilie:
Galileo
designed many of the instruments that made modern astronomy possible.
His telescopes were among the best made at the time.
They were used for research and for exploration.
See either web site for other interesting facts about Galileo: http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Galileo.htm
,
http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/b/egalilg.html
If you wish to read what the Church charged Galileo with go to: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1630galileo.html
Return to Task List
Explorers
Introduction
Sailing away to distant lands will
awaken the spirit of almost anyone with an adventurous heart.
In the Renaissance era, there were many such adventurous souls that
yearned to find and conquer new lands for their country.
These new lands provided much needed money and exports that greatly
benefited the mother country. These
explorations proved to be helpful as well in that they provided information
regarding new lands and cultures. Even
though some of these explorers and their countries sometimes exploited these
newfound cultures, without these explorations, the world would be very different
today.
To finish this WebQuest you have to
complete these two tasks:
Task
1
Go to the website and use the links of
the explorers to answer the following questions.
1.With how many ships did Francis Drake
leave England in 1577?
2.When did Magellan set sail with 270
men?
3. When and where was Columbus born?
4. What countries did Columbus find on
his third voyage?
5. Vasco da Gama’s Maritime voyage to
India was when?
http://hms.ttsd.k12.or.us/7th/Renaissance/explorers.htm
Task
2
Imagine that you are a passenger on one
of the explorers’ expeditions. Decide which explorer you want to join for you
voyage and write a two day diary describing what is happening on the ship. Use
the information from the links of the explorer website and your own imagination.
Each day should be described in one or two paragraphs.
http://hms.ttsd.k12.or.us/7th/Renaissance/explorers.htm
http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/renaissance/main/explorers.html
Evaluation
1. Did you use the links given to find
your answers?
2. Were there any questions that you could not
answer?
3. Were you able to finish your diary in the given
time?
Return to Task List
Geography
Introduction
Geography plays a part in everyday Renaissance life just
as it does today. Geography is more than just knowing your states,
countries and capitals.
Task 1
In task one, you will be working with the five themes of
geography. The five themes of geography are:
human/environment interaction, location, place, movement and
regions.
- Human/Environment Interaction: What are
the relationships among people and places? How have people changed the
environment to better suit their needs?
- Location: Where are things located? A
location can be specific (e.g., it can be stated as coordinates of longitude
and latitude or as a distance from another place) or general (it's in the
Northeast).
- Place: What makes a place different from
other places? Differences might be defined in terms of climate, physical
features, or the people who live there and their traditions.
- Movement: What are the patterns of
movement of people, products, and information? A study of movement includes
learning about major modes of transportation used by people, an area's major
exports and imports, and ways in which people communicate (move ideas).
- Regions: How can the Earth be divided into
regions for study? Regions can be defined by a number of characteristics
including area, language, political divisions, religions, and vegetation
(e.g., grassland, marshland, desert, rain forest).
Your first task is to search for examples of each of the
five themes answering some of the before mentioned questions for each of the
themes for the Renaissance
period. For example, for regions you would state the region in which the
Renaissance took place.
Task 2
For this mission, you will be responsible for recreating a
map from one of the following topics:
- European Trade Routes
- One of Joan of Arc's Journeys
- Viking Routes
- The Course of Black Death through Europe
For each of these maps, you can find assistance through A
Medieval Atlas. You must include the names of all the countries, capitals
and major physical features. Doing so will help you gain background
knowledge about where events happened and what in the physical environment
influenced movement of both people and sickness. You must also write a
summary, with a maximum of one (1) page, describing your map in your own words,
explaining what it shows and how your topic was effected by outside
characteristics such as physical features.
YOU WILL FIND YOUR BASEMAP READY TO PRINTOUT BY CLICKING HERE.
It is in a printer friendly version
Some website resources for your tasks are listed below:
MSN's Encarta Page for the Renaissance:
A Medieval Atlas through About.com
You can go to the maps by topic to find out about a specific area such as trade
routes...
The Medieval Child through About.com:
Find out about how students such as yourself were schooled and how they lived
General Medieval Daily Life sites through About.com:
For more help on the Five Themes of Geography visit here for more
explanation
Evaluation
- Were you able to find something to map on your basemap
without difficulty?
- Did you finish each task?
- Were there things that you could not find?
- Did you ask for help when you could not answer a
question?
- Did you find anything that made you more curious about
one of the topics or about geography in general?
Return to Task List
Assessment Questions
Did you complete assigned tasks in
the time given?
Did you follow the directions?
Did you answer the post task
questions?
What was one thing you learned?
Did you enjoy this experience? Why
or Why not?
Were you able to find all the
information needed through the web sites given?
Return to Task List
Conclusion
While exploring the WebQuest The
World of the Renaissance, we hope you have had fun,
learned new information, and most importantly, connected with the topics. If
not, please go back and explore some other links to further your experience.
Prepare to explain how you feel more interested in or more connected with the
topic, The World of the
Renaissance, now that you have tried this WebQuest.
Congratulations!
You have successfully
completed this WebQuest
Data Maintainer Block:
Created by BobbieJo Koski for WebQuest Group
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Developmental Reading in the Secondary School
Dr. Anne Stinson
All graphics found through About.com
Last Updated on 18 April 2001
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