Explorer Ferdinand Magellan sailed through the Straits of Magellan and entered the Pacific Ocean from the east for the first time in 1520.

Ferdinand Magellan, a famed explorer from Portugal, set sail under the Spanish flag in September of 1519 to find a route through the New World to the Spice Islands. Convinced that the globe could be circumnavigated, Magellan and his five ships made good time to the Americas, arriving there in late fall. The search for a passage across the land mass proved very difficult, and after spending almost a year and losing one of his ships, Magellan and his small fleet found what would be known as the "Straits of Magellan" in October 1520. It took 38 days to sail through the passage, and on November 28, 1520, Magellan and his remaining ships passed through the mouth of the strait and sailed into the "Sea of the South," named years earlier by Balboa when he sighted it from land in Panama. The captain and crew had no idea the sea was as large as it is, and what they surmised to be a two or three day crossing took four months. While the crossing was long, and supplies were almost exhausted, the ocean itself was so calm that the sailors renamed it the "Pacific." The ships landed in Guam in March of 1521, where they re-supplied and set sail again. A month later, Magellan himself was killed by natives in the Philippines, but his crew weathered on, reaching the Spice Islands and eventually completing the journey (though with only one of the original five ships), returning to Spain in fall of 1522. Magellan's belief in the possibility proved true, though he did not live to see it.

Xpeditions
In The Ocean and Weather: El Niño and La Niña (6-8), students explore the weather phenomena El Niño and La Niña. They learn about when and where these weather changes occur, and about the effects they have on everything in their wake.

Science NetLinks
The purpose of the lesson El Niño (6-8) is to help students understand that El Niño is caused by changes in the atmospheric and ocean content. In earlier grades, students learn about the atmosphere, weather and oceans in a descriptive sense. This lesson demonstrates how the atmosphere and oceans affect one another, including how a small change in sea surface height can have a large impact on weather (part of the cause of El Niño). El Niño is a mass of warm water that moves eastward as trade winds relax. The warm water brings torrential rains to parts of the world that are not prepared for such weather.

ARTSEDGE
In Explorers' Experience (5-8), students discuss the concept of exploration. They research a world explorer and prepare maps of the routes traveled. The students then create a papier-mâché map to represent the explorer's journey.

Xpeditions
Everyday Explorers: Investigate! (6-8) inspires the spirit of exploration in students by encouraging them to become "Everyday Explorers" as they dig in, get dirty and learn more about the physical and biological world around them.

The related activity, Be an Explorer Every Day! (K-12), guides students as they make exploration tool-kits with gear to help them explore their local environments.