Lesson 3: The Columbian Exchange
Duration of Days: 3
Lesson Objective
Students will explain the economic, environmental, and demographic effects of the Columbian Exchange on Afro-Eurasia and the Americas.
What goods, peoples, and diseases moved across the Atlantic?
How did the Columbian Exchange transform societies?
Columbian Exchange, cash crops, plantation system, demographic collapse
APWH Unit 4 Topic 4.4
Skill 4.A
Reasoning Process: Continuity and Change
Synthesizing information from lecture-based content and visuals.
This multi-day lecture synthesizes the global consequences of sustained transoceanic contact.
Purpose: Content mastery and synthesis
DOK: 2–3
Global food systems and environmental exchange.
Students may view the Columbian Exchange as primarily beneficial.
Guided notes; optional enrichment readings.
Checkpoint multiple-choice questions and discussion prompts.
Lecture slides, trade diagrams, timelines