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Sailing through the Panama Canal
Randi Dorman
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While the Panama Canal certainly was an engineering celebration, the construction of the Panama Canal opened military and economic avenues for the United States. The distance from the East Coast and the West Coast of the United States hindered military security and economic growth. The small Latin American country of Panama had only sixty miles of land between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The United States government was determined to establish itself as a world power through military and economic supremacy by building the Panama Canal from 1904 to 1914. Within this lesson, students will construct a model of the Panama locks to understand how the Atlantic and Pacific oceans were connected through the small country of Panama.
Background information can be found in NOTES as well as in linked ESSAY.
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Panama Canal Base model Part A Handout LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Base model Part B Handout LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Lock 1 and 2 Handout LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Lock 3 Handout LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Visual Top View of Panama Canal LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Visual Components LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Assembly Movie LP1YR3 Dorman
Panama Canal Directions for Model LP1YR3 Dorman
Copying paper, scissors, and tape
"Shonts, Who Began Panama Work, Will Be at Opening" LaGrange Reporter, July 24, 1914.(Used with permission from LaGrange Daily News)
Internet (Optional)
http://canalmuseum.com/ Historical and contemporary photos of Panama Canal
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/persona/k/index.html Kids' link available; Animation of the lock system.
http://www.ared.com/kora/java/pcc/javaani.html Animation (side view) of all the locks
60 minutes
1Y3
EQ:
How did Americans justifiy imperalism through the building of the Panama Canal?
Content Specific:
How does a canal lock system work?
"Shonts, Who Began Panama Work, Will Be at Opening" LaGrange Reporter, July 24, 1914. (Used with permission from LaGrange Daily News.)
On each student's desk have a copy of the newspaper article from the LaGrange Reporter on July 24, 1914 and/ or prepare a transparency for an overhead for the entire class to view.
Download the newspaper article, Shonts, Who Began Panama Work, Will Be at Opening, from the Link Files section. For clarity, the article has been retyped, but a copy of the original news article is provided in the Link Files area.
Ask the students to read the article and offer reasons why the ceremony did not happen.
Theodore P. Shonts was president of five Midwestern railroads and served on the Isthmian Canal Commission 1905-1907.
The actual celebration was to come on August 15, 1914, but was interrupted by World War I earlier that month. The fleet of torpedo boats and other military ships were unavailable. A very simple ceremony developed with a cement boat, the Ancon, making the first official transit.
Using internet access, demonstrate the operation of the Panama Canal lock system by using the website http://www.ared.com/kora/java/pcc/javaani.html and/or prepare the paper model of the canal lock system to display. On the whiteboard, show the students that a ship entering from the Atlantic Ocean had to ascend through the canal locks because the Gatun Lake (artificial lake) was 85 feet above sea-level. After sailing through the Gatun Lake and the nearby mountains, the ship had to descend by using the canal lock system to enter the Pacific Ocean that was at a lower sea-level. The website gives an animation of the entire process through all twelve locks of the Panama Canal.
Give copies of the model for each student or partnerships to construct the canal lock system. Visuals of the model and its components are available for downloading from the Linked files. Also, a short assembly movie is available to demonstrate the final stage of construction. Directions are provided on the Panama Canal Directions for Paper Model Handout that can be downloaded from the Link Files section.
The entire trip between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans can be achieve in one day and can save 8,000 miles on a journey between the oceans. Students express their understanding of how the canal lock system works by writing an informational paragraph about Sailing through the Panama Canal and/or demonstrate the operation of the canal lock system by using the model.
Students may select to do a narrative paragraph instead of an informational paragraph. Using creative skills, the student will pretend to be writing home describing the experience as the student sails through the Panama Canal. Student might consider the senses in order to describe smells, sight, or hearing as the student travels in a day on the Panama Canal
The 51-mile-long Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914 with very little notice because World War I had been declared earlier that month. A lock canal had been built since less digging through the Cordillera Mountains was necessary but the huge concrete locks were powered by electricity that many Americans did not have in their own homes at that time. A ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific began its journey at the Gatun locks. Electric locomotives called mules towed the ship into the lock and the minter gates closed. The length of the canal on Gatun Lake was 24 miles with the length of each lock being 1000 feet. A hundred holes in the floor opened to rush water into the area, so the water level rose to the same level as the second lock. A ship continued to the third lock and was raised 85 feet above sea level in order to be released into the Gatun Lake that was the largest man-made lake at that the time. The ship sailed through the Culebra Cut into another set of locks, the Pedro Miguel, and finally into the Miraflores Locks that reversed the process of the Gatun locks by lowering the water level through the locks until the ship sailed out to the Pacific Ocean.The 51-mile-long Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914 with very little notice because World War I had been declared earlier that month. A lock canal had been built since less digging through the Cordillera Mountains was necessary but the huge concrete locks were powered by electricity that many Americans did not have in their own homes at that time. A ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific began its journey at the Gatun locks. Electric locomotives called mules towed the ship into the lock and the minter gates closed. The length of the canal on Gatun Lake was 24 miles with the length of each lock being 1000 feet. A hundred holes in the floor opened to rush water into the area, so the water level rose to the same level as the second lock. A ship continued to the third lock and was raised 85 feet above sea level in order to be released into the Gatun Lake that was the largest man-made lake at that the time. The ship sailed through the Culebra Cut into another set of locks, the Pedro Miguel, and finally into the Miraflores Locks that reversed the process of the Gatun locks by lowering the water level through the locks until the ship sailed out to the Pacific Ocean.The 51-mile-long Panama Canal opened on August 15, 1914 with very little notice because World War I had been declared earlier that month. A lock canal had been built since less digging through the Cordillera Mountains was necessary but the huge concrete locks were powered by electricity that many Americans did not have in their own homes at that time. A ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific began its journey at the Gatun locks. Electric locomotives called mules towed the ship into the lock and the minter gates closed. The length of the canal on Gatun Lake was 24 miles with the length of each lock being 1000 feet. A hundred holes in the floor opened to rush water into the area, so the water level rose to the same level as the second lock. A ship continued to the third lock and was raised 85 feet above sea level in order to be released into the Gatun Lake that was the largest man-made lake at that the time. The ship sailed through the Culebra Cut into another set of locks, the Pedro Miguel, and finally into the Miraflores Locks that reversed the process of the Gatun locks by lowering the water level through the locks until the ship sailed out to the Pacific Ocean.
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Top View of Panama Canal model_1Y3 Dorman
PANAMA CANAL LOCK 2 AND LOCK 3_1Y3
PANAMA CANAL LOCK 1_1Y3 Dorman
Panama Canal Handout LaGrange Report July 24 1914_
Panama Canal Directions for Paper Model Handout_1Y
PANAMA CANAL BASE PART B1_1Y3
PANAMA CANAL BASE PART A_1Y3 Dorman
Model Assembly Movie_1Y3
Components of the Panama Canal Model_1Y3 Dorman