The Renaissance Explorers

Who were the Renaissance explorers? How did they change the world?

Being a Renaissance explorer was both exciting and rewarding. But it sure wasn't easy! Explorers in the Age of Exploration faced many challenges and dangers as their ships sailed into new and unfamiliar lands. Some explorers caught diseases, while others battled with native peoples over control of the territory. Without the efforts of the Renaissance explorers, the world as we know it might have been very different!

In The Renaissance Explorers with History Projects for Kids, readers ages 10 through 15 find out more about what it meant to be an explorer and follow the biographies of five famous Renaissance explorers, including Niccolò de Conti, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama, Pêro da Covilhã, and Ferdinand Magellan, from their childhoods until their exhilarating days of scouting new-to-them lands. Using the engineering design process, kids develop critical and creative thinking skills with 10 hands-on STEAM activities. Fun facts, primary source illustrations, and links to online resources spark an interest in the Renaissance that goes beyond the boundaries of Europe. Even without a time machine, learners can experience the Renaissance!

The Renaissance Explorers is one of a set of four books in the Renaissance for Kids series. Other titles in the series are The Renaissance Inventors, The Renaissance Artists, and The Renaissance Thinkers.

Try these STEAM projects from the world of the Renaissance!

Make a compass that works

Build a beacon like the ones used by Bartolomeu Dias

Design a travel board game