Explorers Grade 4 Social Studies

Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) was a French explorer who led three expeditions to Canada, in 1534, 1535, and 1541. He was looking for a route to the Pacific through North America (a Northwest Passage) but did not find one. Cartier sailed inland, going 1,000 miles up the St. Lawrence River. He also tried to start a settlement in Quebec (in 1541), but it was abandoned after a terribly cold winter. Cartier named Canada; "Kanata" means village or settlement in the Huron-Iroquois language. Cartier was given directions by Huron-Iroquois Indians for the route to "kanata," a village near what is now Quebec, but Cartier later named the entire region Canada.

Josee Auclair Josée Auclair (born May 20, 1962 in Sherbrooke, Quebec) is a Canadian explorer. Josée started cross-country skiing at the age of ten. She was a member of Canada's National Cross Country Ski Team and represented Canada at international championships namely in Sweden and Germany. On five occasions between 1999 and 2004, Josée skied to the North Pole as part of the "last degree expeditions" organised by Canadian Arctic Holidays, the Arctic expeditions and adventure company she operates with her husband. In 2006, Josée was back in the expedition leader role for a group of 9 people heading from the North Pole to Ward Hunt Island at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island, Nunavut Canada. On April 27, the group had managed to reach latitude 88 50', however bad ice conditions endangered their safety and they had to be evacuated and brought back to the Borneo drifting station. In January 2007, Josée set foot in Antarctica for the very first time as a team of four women called upon her to be their expedition leader for a last degree expedition to the South Pole. She is therefore the first Canadian woman to have guided expeditions at both poles.

Frank Cole Frank Cole (1954 – 2000) was an award winning Canadian documentary filmmaker and avid surfer who became the first North American to cross the Sahara alone on camel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. This epic odyssey earned Cole a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. His documentary Life Without Death chronicled his experience and won him several prestigious awards as well as being released theatrically in Paris. Cole was murdered by Tuareg bandits near Timbuktu, Mali, in late October 2000. In 2000, Cole returned to cross the Sahara again; this time his plan was to cross and then return from the Red Sea back to the Atlantic Ocean. In October 2000 Cole met one or two bandits who murdered him. Cole fought back but could not overpower the attackers. Cole died at sunset and was tied to a small desert shrub tree for reasons unknown.

Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong was born on August 5, 1930. In July of 1969 He was the commander of Apollo 11. It was Americas first attempt the land on the moons lunar surface. On  July 20, 1969 commander Armstrong and astronaut Edwin Aldrin became the first to step foot on the moon. After Neil Armstrong's foot was the first to touch the moon he spoke the unforgettable phrase "That's one step for man; One giant leap for mankind."

Eugenie Clark Dr. Eugenie Clark may be one of the most remarkable underwater explorers on Earth. Her career studying marine life throughout the world’s oceans has spanned more than five decades and taken her in submersibles to investigate the darkest and coldest waters 12,000 feet below the surface. Over the years, Dr. Clark has studied fish face-to-face by snorkeling, hard-hat diving, scuba diving and patrolling for deep water sharks in submersibles. At nearly 87, she continues her underwater studies. She once saw that if you touched a flatfish called Moses sole, milky white liquid would ooze out and it felt tingly on your fingers. When she discovered this she started testing the liquid with other types of fish. After many tests she decided to test it with sharks. She found a Moses sole that still had some liquid. She tied it with string and lowered it into the water. She watched as the shark swam towards the fish but stopped abruptly in front of it and looking as if its mouth were frozen. After a moment, the shark swam away from the poisonous fish. As a result she performed more experiments with fish and sharks and finally confirmed that the poisonous substance would "repel" sharks. She then decided to test this with sharks out in the ocean. She tied many types of fish each to a line and cast them into the water. One by one, the fish were eaten but the sharks kept avoiding the Moses sole fish.

Edmund Hillary Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, (20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008), was a New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and philanthropist. On 29 May 1953 at the age of 33, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest – see Timeline of climbing Mount Everest. Snow and wind held the pair up at the South Col for two days. In the morning Hillary discovered that his boots had frozen solid outside the tent. He spent two hours warming them before he and Tenzing attempted the final ascent wearing 30-pound (14 kg) packs. They reached Everest's 29,028 ft (8,848 m) summit, the highest point on earth, at 11:30 am Following his ascent of Everest he devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust, which he founded. Through his efforts many schools and hospitals were built in this remote region of Nepal.