Social Studies
Lesson Plan


History of Mt. Everest

Learning Objective:
Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from historic documents, images and other sources.

Teacher Directions:
Here are some quick historical facts.

  • Mount Everest was named in 1865 after Sir George Everest, who was the British surveyor general of India.
  • Before 1865, Mount Everest was known as Peak 15.
  • George Mallory is believed to be the first person in modern history to attempt to summit Everest. He died trying in 1924.
  • 1n 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach the summit.
  • In 1970 Yuichiro Miura from Japan was the first to go down Mt. Everest on skis.
  • In 1975 Junko Tabei became the first woman to summit Mount Everest.
  • In 1980 the first solo climb was done by Reinhold Messner.
  • The first disabled person to attempt Mount Everest was Tom Whittaker. In 1998 he reached the summit.
  • The most ascents were made by Sherpa Ang Rita, who has climbed Mount Everest ten times.
  • About six hundred climbers from twenty countries have reached the summit. Their ages range from nineteen to sixty.
  • At least one hundred people have died trying to summit Mount Everest.

Be a historian and dig into these facts in more detail. Often, behind the facts are interesting stories and people. Ask questions and seek answers by collecting and analyzing data from a variety of sources. Once you’ve uncovered some interesting information, organize it into either a report or a PowerPoint presentation and share it with your classmates.

To get started, use the five Ws and H questions to help you frame some research questions. For instance, for the first fact you might come up with the following questions:

  • Who is Sir George Everest?
  • What did a surveyor general of India do?
  • When did Sir George do something significant enough to get the mountain named after him?
  • Why was it named after him?
  • Why was a British fellow the surveyor general of India?
  • Where was Sir George from and where did he live most of his life?
  • How did mountains get named?

Now that we have some questions, we need to find some resources to help us answer the questions. We can look for historical narratives, photos/pictures, maps, timelines or other sources on the Internet. Here are a few good places to start:
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Google
Yahooligans
Sir George Everest

Write helpful information that you find on individual index cards. Also, write the source of the information. Categorize and label the cards as you collect more and more information. This will help you later in selecting your topic, organizing and writing your report and in compiling your presentation. If you are finding information electronically, organize your documents and pictures that you save into folders.

Now that you have collected your information, sift through your note cards. What topic had the most information? What topic had the most interesting information? On what topic did you find information from a variety of sources? Were the sources reliable?

The answers to these questions should help you decide on the topic you will select for sharing. Organize your index cards by subtopics to help you more easily write your report or compile a PowerPoint presentation.

Here is a sample organizational style:

Have a title that grabs the audience: Who is Sir George and Why Did He Have a Mountain Named after Him?

A. Who is Sir George Everest?
1. Where was he born and where did he grow up?
2. What was his family and upbringing like?
3. How did he end up in India?
B. Why was Mt. Everest named after him?
1. What was his job?
2. How important was he in the discovery of Mt. Everest?
3. Who decided that the mountain be named after him? Why?

Then give your report to an audience. When giving a report remember to:

  • Tell them what you are going to tell them
  • Tell them
  • Tell them what you told them

Resources:
Ask Jeeves for Kids
Google
Yahooligans
Sir George Everest

Activity Sheet:
None

Assessment:
Social Studies Assessment Sheet*

* pdf document (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader, available free from Adobe)

Close this window