Lesson video

Hello there, and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Moss.

I'm really passionate about history, and I'm also really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that, having something to write with and write on and someone or something to talk to would also be really helpful.

Alright then, let's get straight into today's history lesson.

In today's history lesson, we're going to be looking at Chinese innovation in seafaring.

Innovation means using new methods, ideas, or devices.

And the Chinese were certainly great innovators when it came to travelling by sea.

We're going to be looking at some Chinese boats, and also, the ways in which they were able to navigate.

So the outcome will be, "I can explain why the Chinese were such good navigators." Here are the key words for today's learning.

My turn, your turn.

"Junk." Brilliant.

Make sure I can hear you saying these back to me.

"Rudder." "Navigate." And "compass." Make sure you keep an eye on and ear out for these words today.

Let's have a chat about what they mean then.

A Chinese with sails and a rudder was called a junk.

A rudder, which I just said in that sentence moments ago, is a flat movable piece of wood at the back of a boat that helps it to change direction.

This was a really great innovation, and it meant that boats could turn without having to use oars.

To navigate means to find a way from one place to another.

And today, we're going to be looking at the reasons why Chinese sailors were such good navigators.

And an innovative device that the Chinese sailors used was a compass.

A compass is a tool used for navigating that always points north.

So we are looking at Chinese innovation in seafaring, their use of new methods, ideas, and devices.

We are, first of all, going to consider the question: what were Chinese ships like, the junks? Then we're going to consider the question, how did Chinese explorers navigate so well? What innovative methods did they use? Let's get on with answering this first question then.

What were Chinese ships like? Here, we have an illustration of a Chinese junk.

Can you say that for me? Junk.

Chinese explorers went on voyages in huge strong ships called junks.

You can see how large this junk is.

It has a huge, strong hull.

It has three sets of sails.

And at the back, if you look to the bottom left, I can see the rudder.

Remember, this rudder is extremely useful for changing the direction of the boat.

They usually had colourful flags flying at the top of them as well.

Can you spot the flags on this junk? Brilliant.

I can see a number of flags flying from the top of this junk.

Is there anything else you notice that's interesting about this junk? Take some time now to look at the illustration.

Great job, team.

A thing that strikes me about it is its sheer scale.

It's really big, isn't it? If we compare it to the other ships in the foreground, it's huge, isn't it? So Chinese junks could be very, very large.

They were very strong, and they were very good at going on long distance voyages.

Famous Chinese seafarers, like Zheng He, would've used junks such as this.

The Chinese ships at this time would've dwarfed their European counterparts.

Zheng He's treasure junk, for instance, was absolutely massive.

So junks had many large sails to catch the wind.

How many sails can you see here on this ship? See if you can spot them.

Brilliant.

We can see here that this ship has three large sails.

The sails were attached to tall poles called 'mast.

' Can you say that for me? Mast.

Can you see the tall pole going upwards from the deck and the hull of the ship with the sails attached to them? So there would've been at least three mast on this ship.

The one in the middle would've been the main mast, the largest with the largest sail attached to it.

These masts would've kept the sail in place and allowed the sail to catch the wind for fast transport over the water.

So Chinese seafarers use ships called trunks, junks, or canoes.

Pause the video now.

Complete the sentence with the correct word.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

Chinese seafarers use ships called junks.

Not trunks, like a tree trunk, and not a canoe.

Canoes are far smaller water vessels.

Remember, these junks could be huge, could have various sails, a rudder, and a huge hull.

Junks had a rudder at the back to help them to change direction.

Look to the right here at the illustration of our junk.

We can see our mast and our sails.

And if you look carefully, and it's zoomed into the left here, we have an illustration of a rudder.

You can see that it's a piece of wood that could have moved.

The ship's captain could steer moving this rudder, which would then change the direction of the base.

This was incredibly useful.

Using a rudder to change direction was much quicker than using oars.

If we think back to the early Mediterranean galleys, those boats had to use oars.

So did the Viking long boats.

They would've used oars.

They wouldn't have had rudders that could have been used to change direction.

They would've had to use oars, which would've been far slower.

Oarsmen rowing to change the direction of the ship.

Chinese junks then use rudders, this piece of wood at the back that could change direction.

And this meant that the boats could successfully and quickly change direction in the water.

So which part of a junk helped it to change direction quickly? (a) the flags, (b) the rudder, or (c) the sails? Pause the video now.

Which part helped the junk change direction? Off you go.

Great job, team.

Do you think flags would've helped a huge junk to change direction? Definitely not.

They were there for decoration and to show the colours.

The rudder could have helped it change direction and did indeed help it change direction quickly, far quicker than oars on a Viking long boat or an early Mediterranean galley.

The rudder was that flat piece of wood attached to the bottom of the boats at the back that could then be connected to something that could change direction and could be steered.

It allowed the boat to quickly change direction.

The sails on a junk were not for helping change direction.

They were for gathering the wind and for pushing the boat forwards.

So the rudder was a great piece of innovation that helped to change the direction of boats quickly.

And it's one of the reasons why Chinese junks were such effective and efficient boats.

For our practise task now, what I'd like you to do is to complete the labels on the illustration of a junk.

Here we have our illustration of a Chinese junk.

Remember to consider those key parts of the junk that we have looked at so far.

We have colourful something.

We have three mms. Helping to attach those mms, we have, look what it's pointing at beginning with M.

And finally, to help the junk change direction, what do we have at the back below? Can you use the keywords that we've looked at and the learning from our learning cycle so far to complete the labels on the illustration of a junk? Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

I'm incredibly impressed.

You're clearly now are experts on a Chinese junk.

Remember, we're looking at what these Chinese ships were like and why they were so innovative.

So let's go through.

Your answers should look like this.

We had colourful flags that could be used to show the colours of the ship, where it's from, and also to decorate.

We had mast, and I can see three masts on this junk.

We have the rudder, that key innovative thing that the Chinese used here on their ships.

That piece of wood that could change the direction quickly of the junk.

And on our mast, we have sails.

We have three large sails here on our junk that would help to harness wind power and propel the ship forward.

So these are the key features of a Chinese junk.

Colourful flags, sails attached to mast, and of course that key innovation, the rudder, which would help the ship change direction quickly.

Do you have any corrections to make? Make them now.

So we have looked at what Chinese ships are like.

We've looked carefully at the innovations of the Chinese junk boats.

Now, we are going to look at this question: how did Chinese explorers navigate so well? Chinese seafarers, so people who travelled and transported things by sea were able to travel long distances across the ocean because they used special tools to help them navigate.

'Navigate' was one of our key words.

Say it for me now.

Navigate.

Remember, to navigate is to find your way successfully from one place to another.

Chinese navigators, seafarers, and explorers such as Zheng He were able to even go as far as places like Africa.

They were able to do so 'cause they were such excellent and innovative navigators.

And what we're going to consider in this learning cycle is why they were such good navigators.

How did they manage to navigate these huge Chinese junks, such as the one in our illustration here so successfully to such far reaches? What does navigate mean? Pause the video now and have a think.

Brilliant.

I love seeing your thinking there, and I could hear some of you sharing what you think navigate meant with your learning partners as well.

To navigate means to find a way from one place to another.

The Chinese seafarers were very good at finding their way.

They were excellent navigators, so we want to look now and consider why they were such excellent navigators.

Which word means to find a way from one place to another? Is it (a) junk, (b) navigate, or (c) rudder? Pause the video and select the correct answer now.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

Well, it's not a junk, is it? A junk isn't a noun.

It's that ship that the Chinese sailed.

Navigate.

Yes, that's our word, isn't it? That word means to find your way successfully from one place to another.

And rudder, that is not our answer.

That was that innovative piece of word put onto the Chinese junk that helps the ship to change direction quickly and efficiently.

So the word which means to find your way from one place to another is navigate.

And remember, we are considering how and why Chinese explorers were able to navigate and find their way so well.

So this is one of the key reasons why Chinese explorers were such good navigators.

Here we have an illustration of one of our key words.

My turn, your turn.

A compass.

I wonder if you've seen a compass before.

Chinese explorers were the first seafarers to use a compass to navigate.

The Vikings before them, the Polynesians, and the early Mediterranean seafarers hadn't used compasses.

The Chinese were the first to use a compass.

I wonder why the compass was so useful.

Incredibly, even seafarers today still use a compass to work out which direction they need to travel in.

This was truly a great innovation.

So what is a compass then? A compass is a tool used for navigating that always points north, and because it always points north, you always know the direction that you are heading in.

You are therefore able to find your bearing, your heading.

You can set a map, and really importantly, you can travel in straight lines.

Have you ever seen a compass before? Have you ever seen a compass being used before? When was this? Pause the video now and share your ideas.

Brilliant.

I know that I've seen compasses being used on maps, both on land and at sea.

As we mentioned previously, the compass and using it for transport was incredibly innovative.

It meant that the Chinese sailors knew exactly where they were heading.

It meant that they could travel in the oceans and seas in a very straight line, which could otherwise be very difficult in the sea.

You could easily go round in circles.

Because of this compass, they were able to become expert navigators.

So who were the first seafarers to use a compass? The Polynesians, the Vikings, or the Chinese? Pause the video now.

Great job, team.

So who were the first seafarers to use a compass? Not the Polynesians, not the Vikings, but absolutely the Chinese.

Polynesians and Vikings were quite good navigators and seafarers, but they didn't use compasses.

They would've used signs from nature.

They also would've used the sun and the stars.

But the Chinese were able to use a compass for the first time as seafarers.

So they knew exactly where they were heading, where they were going consistently, and were able to travel in straight lines.

So the four main compass directions are north, south, east, and west.

I remember this as Never Eat Shredded Wheat.

That mnemonic device: north, south, east, west.

A compass always points north.

This is really important.

Because it always points north, that means that you are able to travel in a consistent direction.

You know consistently where you were going.

Using a compass, Chinese explorers could quickly check which way they were going.

And this then links with the rudder meant they could make quick adjustments and turns in their Chinese junks and go in a consistent direction to navigate themselves.

This made their journeys easier, quicker, and also more reliable.

This is why they were such expert navigators and seafarers.

So true or false: a compass helped Chinese seafarers to navigate.

True or false, and why? Off you go, team.

Brilliant.

This is absolutely true.

The Chinese seafarers were the first people to use a compass to help them navigate.

A compass always points north.

And so they knew which direction they needed to travel in, could make quick adjustments.

This made their journeys quicker and more reliable.

So what I'd like us to do now for this practise task is to consider all of the learning that we've done so far in our two learning cycles.

I need you to explain to your partner why Chinese explorers were able to navigate so well.

You could use these words and pictures to help you: rudder, compass, junk.

Consider these different innovations and how they help the Chinese to be such successful navigators and seafarers.

Tell your partner now.

Off you go.

Excellent job, team.

I'm incredibly impressed.

You're clearly now experts on why the Chinese were such great seafarers, explorers, and navigators.

So your answer might have looked like this.

"Chinese explorers were able to navigate very well because they used a special tool called a compass.

Remember that a compass always points north, and so they knew which direction they were going in.

They also had strong ships called junks with large sails to catch the wind.

Junks also had this really innovative rudder to help them change direction quickly if they needed to.

These huge junks with the rudders combined with the compass meant that the Chinese navigators could quickly make adjustments and change the direction when needed so they have more reliable and consistent journeys.

This is why there were such excellent navigators and seafarers." Did you have anything else you wanted to add to your answer? Did you have anything else you wanted to share with me that you've learned this lesson? Share now.

Great job in history today, team.

We have been looking at Chinese innovation in seafaring.

Remember that word innovation means using new methods, ideas, or devices.

And I'm hoping now that you know some of those methods and devices that the Chinese used to be such good navigators.

They had their really strong ships called junks.

These junks had large sails, which would catch the wind and move the boats forward.

But as well as this, they had rudders.

These rudders allowed the ships to change direction efficiently and quickly.

Chinese explorers were the first to use a compass to navigate.

Seafarers use a compass to work out the direction of travel, making journeys easier and more reliable.

The design of junks and the use of a compass help Chinese seafarers travel great distances on their voyages and be excellent navigators.

Keep up the great history learning, and I'll see you again soon.