Girl in traditional dress (Zhouzhuang, China)

Why is it called the Silk Road?
(All about silk)

Silk shop in Beijing, China

Marco Polo's Journey from Venice, Italy to Xian, China (A 24 year journey)

Project Description:

The Silk Road spanned nearly 5,000 miles from East Asia to the Mediterranean Sea. Traders, pilgrims, and warriors traveled along the Silk Road from Rome and Antioch in the west to as far as China in the east. In fact, trade extended even farther east from China into Korea and over to Japan. The silk road is not one long road, but rather many smaller roads and pathways that were connected, and worn by the use of thousands of travelers over a period of hundreds of years. (Click here for Silk Road History article)

In this project, you will complete a Map Assignment, locating and labeling Silk Road Stops, resources, and physical features that travelers had to traverse. You will then complete a Graphic Organizer through traveling on a virtual tour of the Silk Road, stopping at seven locations and learning about the goods and ideas that people exchanged yesterday and today. You will record notes on your graphic organizer, making conclusions and inferences about what you encounter and learn.

In the final stage of this project, you will create an Illustrated Report as if you were working as an historian researching and creating an illustrated report for the World Trade Organization on the Silk Road. Your assignment will be to show the history of trade on the Silk Road of yesterday and its effect on the world today. You will also make the argument why trade is important to us today and why we need to work towards world peace so that trade can continue to flourish as it did during the time of the Silk Road.

Supplemental Lesson: Defending Marco Polo - The Truth About China

The Silk Road Yesterday

Camel caravan on the Silk Road

The Silk Road Today

Cargo ships in the Three Gorges Dam