The St. Augustine worksheet can be used as an assessment tool, or you may choose to use class discussions or essays to evaluate student understanding.

In "St Augustine" students are asked to think about what physical characteristics of land would be necessary for establishing colonies and what natural resources must be present to support the colony.
Students are asked to select their own site on Florida's east coast where requirements for settlement might have been met. This requires them to use map reading skills and to use their imagination to compare and contrast the site they select with St. Augustine. Skills included are analyzing, comparing, and contrasting.

Sample answers to worksheet questions:

1 & 2) What factors need to be considered in selecting a site to establish a colony?

Physical characteristics of land might include: deep water for ships, non-rocky shores for landing smaller boats, higher land to provide lookout advantage, sufficient woods to provide lumber for building, tillable soil

Natural resources that would be needed include: adequate freshwater, presence of fish, deer, turkeys, edible plants.

3)

4. The map below is from 1861. Double click on the Internet version and look closely at the eastern coast of Florida. If your colony survived until 1861, what town would it have become? ____Susanna_____________
Would you change the location of your colony? ___Yes __x_No
Why?
It is close to a freshwater lake and a fort and appears to a have a river running by it from a large
inland lake.

5. The St. Augustine aerial photograph below was taken in 1924 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
What modern features does it show? bridges, roads, marinas, houses

Why would this type of photograph have been useful to early explorers and settlers?
The detail of this photograph would have allowed explorers and settlers to find freshwater lakes, rivers, trees, shallow water, swamps, higher ground, sheltered harbors, etc. It would have been very useful in determining the layout of the land and to some extent the types of resources, e.g., timber, that would be available.