Who Discovered America?

We have begun our first social studies unit by asking the question, "who discovered America?" Students had quite a variety of answers to this question which led us to ask, "what does it really mean to discover something?" Is the the first to see something, the first to live somewhere, the first to bring news of the land back, or the first to wander the land? We took this as an opportunity to explore several theories that have been developed about how people first got to the North and South American continents. We looked at the land bridge theory, the Pacific crossing theory, the Atlantic crossing theory, the Hopi origins story, and the Native American origins story. Through this process we will use the facts to help us decide which theory we believe and spend a little bit of time debating our beliefs. Even though experts don't all agree on how the first people came to the Americas, one thing is for sure, Christopher Columbus does not deserve all the credit and recognition he gets!