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Steamboat and Canal

Steamboat and Canal

Assessment

Presentation

Social Studies

7th Grade

Practice Problem

Easy

Created by

Caitlin Irwin

Used 25+ times

FREE Resource

14 Slides • 6 Questions

1

Steamboat and Canal

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2

Before the Steamboat

Before steamboats, farmers built flatboats that floated downriver to carry their goods to sell.


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3


Once they reached their destination, farmers sold the wood from their boats and then walked back home—sometimes over hundreds of miles—because the flatboats could not travel back upstream.

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4

Multiple Choice

Why were flatboats difficult to use?

1

they used too much coal for power.

2

you could not sail them up a river.

5

Steamboat

By 1800, the steam engine had been invented. The steam engine burned wood or coal to heat water that then turned into steam. 

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6

Multiple Choice

What two natural resources did a steamboat use for power?

1

Wood and coal

2

water and air

7


A steam engine would turn large wheels and give the boat the power it needed to go upstream.  

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8

It took sailing ships four days to make a 150 mile trip. A steamboat could complete the trip in only a day and a half. 

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9

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10

Multiple Choice

What was faster?

1

steamboat

2

flatboat

3

horse

11

The Erie Canal

A canal connects two bodies of water. The Erie Canal connects Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes, to the Hudson River in New York State. 

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12

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13

Huge Job

Digging the Erie Canal was a big job. Thousands of people worked on

it for several years. The canal was more than three hundred miles long. 

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14


The Erie Canal made it possible for more people to go west and for farmers out west to send their crops east, to New York City.

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15

Other goods could be sent by canal to New York City too. New York City grew quickly, thanks in part to the Erie Canal. 

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16

Because of the Erie Canal

  • People and goods were able to travel faster.

  • Cities in New York grew because of the canal traffic.

  • Native Americans were forced to leave their lands so that the canal could be built. 

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17

Open Ended

Why was the Erie Canal important?


travel

faster

people

18

Open Ended

What was bad about Westward Expansion?


Native Americans

19

Steamboats

Steamboats traveled faster and could carry more than flatboats and rafts. They helped cities and

towns along the Mississippi grow and helped the United States become economically strong. 

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20

Open Ended

How did steamboats make traveling easier?

Steamboat and Canal

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