amelia earhart unit 4th - 8th grades preview

Amelia Earhart Unit

4th - 8th Grades

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Born: July 24, 1897, Atchison, Kansas. Died: July 1937

Amelia Mary Earhart was born July 24, 1897, in Atchison, Kansas to Samuel "Edwin" Stanton and Amelia (Otis) Earhart. She and her younger sister, Grace Muriel, lived in the home of their grandfather, Alfred Otis, and attended a private school. Earhart was inspired to create a home version of the roller coaster she saw at the 1904 St. Louis World‘s Fair. The car and passenger tipped over at the edge of the roof but she said it was "just like flying." In 1908 the family moved to Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois, as her father searched for work.

During World War I Earhart worked as a nurse‘s aide with the Red Cross and after the war as a social worker in Boston. When her parents relocated to California, she moved to Long Beach and there in 1921 began flying lessons with Neta Snook. She soon bought an airplane and the following year broke the women's altitude record. The 1928 trans-Atlantic flight of the Fokker Friendship launched Earhart's career and established her name. As a passenger on the flight, she became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean and wrote of her ex-perience in 20 Hrs. 40 Min., published by George Palmer Put-nam. Earhart and Putnam married February 7, 1931.

Earhart set a record flying solo across the Atlantic in her Lockheed Vega. She flew the 14-hour, 56-minute flight from

Newfoundland to Ireland in May 1932. That year Earhart was elected president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots. She set more records—the first woman to fly solo non-stop coast to coast and the first person to solo over the Pacific from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oak-land, California.

On public speaking tours, Earhart encouraged women to follow their dreams. She accepted an appointment at Purdue University, which helped finance her Lockheed Electra. On March 17, 1937, she began her 29,000-mile flight around the equator with a crew of three—Fred Noonan, Harry Manning, and Paul Mantz. Departing from Oakland, California, the flight headed west to Hawaii. Earhart had difficulty during takeoff in Honolulu and the Electra sustained heavy damage. Following repairs, Earhart and Noonan departed from Miami, Florida, on June 1 and headed east. At approximately 22,000 miles into the flight, they landed June 29 in Lae, New Guinea.

On July 2 they departed for their 2,556-mile flight to tiny Howland Island in the middle of the Pacific. The U.S. Coast Guard cutter, Itasca, was assigned to track the plane during this leg of the flight. The Electra's last transmission was received by the Itasca at 8:43 a.m. A large search effort was begun to find the lost Electra but it was never found.

What do researchers believe happened to the ill-fated flight? Many have searched, however the ‗Earhart Project‘ conducted by an organization called TIGHAR may have some answers. (TIGHAR (pronounced ―tiger‖) is the acronym for The International Group for Historic Air-craft Recovery, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting responsible aviation archaeology and historic preservation.) What do they believe happened?

Having failed to find Howland Island, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan continued on the navigational line Amelia said they were following.

That line led them to uninhabited Gardner Island where Amelia landed the Electra safely on the island‘s fringing reef.

For the next several nights they used the aircraft‘s radio to send distress calls. Radio bearings taken on the signals crossed in the vicinity of Gardner Island. One week after the flight disappeared, three U.S. Navy search planes flew over Gardner Is-

land. By then, the distress calls had stopped. Rising tides and surf had swept the Electra over the reef edge.

The Navy fliers saw no airplane but they did see ―signs of recent habitation.‖ They thought that all the islands in the area were inhabited so they moved on. In fact, no one had lived on Gardner since 1892.

Earhart and Noonan lived for a time as castaways on the waterless atoll, relying on rain squalls for drinking water. They caught and cooked small fish, seabirds, turtles and clams. Amelia died at a makeshift campsite on the island‘s southeast end. Noonan‘s fate is un-known.

Whatever remains of the Electra lies in deep water off the island‘s west end.

http://www.kansasmemory.org/item/616

What is the evidence for these beliefs?

Having failed to find Howland Island, Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan continued on the navigational line Amelia said they were following.

In the last in-flight radio message heard by the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, Earhart said, ―We are on the line 157 337 …. We are running on line north and south.‖ The numbers 157 and 337 refer to compass headings – 157° and 337° – and describe a Line of Position that passes through her intended destination, Howland Island. Running north and then south along that line in an attempt to find Howland makes perfect sense.

That line led them to uninhabited Gardner Island where Amelia landed the Electra safely on the island‘s fringing reef.

Gardner Island (now Nikumaroro) lies on the 157/337 line 356 nautical miles from Howland – well within the Electra‘s calculated range. In several places the fringing reef at Gardner Island dries at low tide and is flat and smooth enough to land an airplane.

For the next several nights they used the aircraft‘s radio to send distress calls.

The post-loss radio signals are a crucial, but often neglected, piece of the Earhart puzzle. Government, commercial and private radio operators around the Pacific and in the U.S. reported hearing the distress calls. Some were transparent hoaxes but several were judged to be genuine. Lockheed engineers insisted that the plane could not transmit if afloat on the ocean. The initial phase of the U.S. Navy search was based on the assumption that the plane was on land, on its landing gear and able to operate an engine to recharge the batteries.

Radio bearings taken on the signals crossed in the vicinity of Gardner Island.

Of six bearings taken by Pan American Airways Radio Direction Finding stations on Oahu, Midway, and Wake Island, the four strongest cross near Gardner Island. A seventh bearing taken by the Coast Guard also passes near Gardner.

One week after the flight disappeared, three U.S. Navy search planes flew over Gardner Island. By then, the distress calls had stopped. Rising tides and surf had swept the Electra over the reef edge.

The available evidence points to a landing on the reef on the west end of the island. One of the last credible distress calls mentioned rising water. The aircraft appears to have been washed seaward and become hung up in the surf zone at the reef edge. A photo of the area taken by a British expedition three months later shows an uni-dentified object on the reef edge. Later residents of the island told of aircraft wreckage in that location.

The Navy fliers saw no airplane but they did see ―signs of recent habitation.‖ They thought that all the islands in the area were inhabited so they moved on. In fact, no one had lived on Gardner since 1892.

From 1890 to 1892 a small work party planted coconuts. Eighteen months after Earhart disappeared the island, renamed Nikumaroro, was settled by a few dozen Pacific islanders under British colonial administration. The colony was shut down in 1963 due to a severe drought. Archaeological work in the abandoned village clearly shows that the residents had access to aircraft wreckage which they cut up and used for local purposes. Some of the recovered aluminum and Plexiglas is con-sistent with Earhart‘s Lockheed Electra.

Earhart and Noonan lived for a time as castaways on the waterless atoll, relying on rain squalls for drinking water. They caught and cooked small fish, seabirds, turtles and clams. Amelia died at a makeshift campsite on the island‘s southeast end. Noonan‘s fate is unknown.

In 1940, three years after Earhart disappeared, a British Colonial Service officer found the partial skeleton of a castaway on a remote part of the island. A campfire, animal bones, a box that had once contained a sextant, remnants of a man‘s shoe and woman‘s shoe made him think he may have found Amelia Earhart but, based on measurements, a doctor judged the skeleton to be male and American authorities were never notified.

The bones were subsequently lost, but computerized re-evaluation of the bone measurements by forensic anthropologists suggests that the skeleton was probably that of a white female of northern European descent who stood roughly Earhart‘s height.

TIGHAR has found a site on the island that fits the description of where the castaway‘s remains were found in 1940. Archaeological excavations in 2001, 2007 and 2010 have found and recovered physical evidence suggesting residence by an American woman of the 1930s including several artifacts of the same type as items known to have been carried by Earhart. TIGHAR research has shown that serial numbers reported to have been on the sextant box found in 1940 are consistent with the make and model of sextant used by Fred Noonan.

Whatever remains of the Electra lies in deep water off the island‘s west end.

TIGHAR‘s 2010 expedition mapped and searched selected areas of the reef down to a depth of 300 meters (1,100 feet) using sonar and an ROV with HD video. No wreckage was found but the reef slope was discovered to be extremely steep until the slope only began to level out at 300 meters – the bottom limit of the ROV‘s capability. TIGHAR has plans to return and continue the search with greater depth capability.

Earhart Reading Comprehension

Name: __________________________ Date: ___________________

1. When and where was Amelia born?

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2. What event seem to spark Amelia‘s fascination for flying?

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3. What occupation did Amelia hold prior to beginning to fly?

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4. When and who did Amelia marry?

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5. What was the Ninety-Nines and what role did Amelia hold within the organization?

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6. What were Amelia‘s firsts for women?

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7. Describe Amelia‘s 1937 trip?

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8. Briefly describe what is thought to have happened during Amelia‘s last flight?

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Timeline of Earhart‘s Life1897-1908 Amelia Mary Earhart was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897 (11:30 pm) to parents Amy Otis and Edwin Stanton Earhart. She was named after her two grandmothers, Amelia Otis and Mary Earhart. Amelia‘s father worked as a lawyer settling claims for various railroads. Two and a half years later, Amelia‘s younger sister, Muriel, was born. Amelia and Muriel lived primarily with their maternal grandparents, Judge Alfred Otis and Amelia Otis in Atchison, Kansas, during the school years. During the summers, the girls stayed with their parents in Kansas City. While in Atchison, the girls attended the private College Preparatory School. Meanwhile, Edwin was offered a job in De Moines, Iowa, and he and Amy moved there to look for a suitable home for the family. The girls remained with their grandparents during this time. 1908 In 1908, Amelia and Muriel joined their parents in Des Moines, Iowa. Edwin Earhart took a job with the Rock Island Railroad. Amelia saw an airplane for the first time at the Iowa State Fair. In 1909, Edwin was promoted at his claims job in Des Moines. 1910-1912 Around this time, Amelia‘s father, Edwin Earhart, began to drink heavily. Ame-lia‘s beloved grandmother, Amelia Harres Otis, died in 1911. Amelia was particu-larly affected by the death, as she had been her grandmother‘s favorite and name-sake. Edwin Earhart lost his job and entered a sanatorium for a month to try and dry out. The move to Des Moines, combined with her grandmother‘s death and her father‘s drunkenness, took its toll on the family and these were troubling, cha-otic years for Amelia and her sister Muriel. 1913 Amelia and her family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. Amelia entered Central High School and played on the basketball team. Her favorite subjects were Latin and mathematics. 1914 Edwin Earhart was offered a job in Springfield, Missouri, and the Earhart family moved again. Upon arriving in Springfield, however, Edwin discovered that he did not have a job after all—the man he was to replace had decided not to retire. This was too much for Amelia‘s mother, Amy, and she and the girls left Edwin to stay with friends in Chicago. Edwin moved back to Kansas to look for work, and eventually opened his own law office. In Chicago, Amelia entered Hyde Park High School, excelling in math and science.

1915 Amelia graduated from Hyde Park High School in Chicago in June 1915. She, along with her mother and sister, moved back to Kansas City to join Edwin there. Edwin had temporarily stopped drinking. 1916-1917 Amelia entered college in October 1916, attending the Ogontz School near Phila-delphia, while her sister Muriel went to St. Margaret‘s College in Toronto, Can-ada. Amelia had originally intended to go to Bryn Mawr, then Vassar, but she filed too late to attend Vassar that year. While at the Ogontz School, Amelia played hockey, studied French and German, and continued to excel in her classes, though she alienated some of her fellow students when she spoke out strongly against the secret sororities there. She was voted Vice President of her class, Secretary to a local Red Cross Chapter, and Secretary and Treasurer of Christian Endeavor while at Ogontz. Amelia spent the summer of 1917 with friends at Camp Gray near Lake Michigan, then returned to Ogontz for the fall semester. Entering her senior term she began planning for graduation, was elected vice-president of her class, and composed the class motto: ―Honor is the foundation of Courage.‖ In Decem-ber, while visiting her sister Muriel in Toronto over Christmas, Amelia was very affected by the sight of four wounded soldiers walking on crutches together down the street. 1918 After a brief return to the Ogontz School, Amelia decided not to stay and gradu-ate, but to move to Toronto and join in the war effort. She became a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse at the Spadina Military Convalescent Hospital in Toronto, car-ing for wounded World War I soldiers. Many of the patients at the hospital where Amelia worked were British and French pilots, and Amelia and Muriel began spending time at a local airfield watching the pilots in the Royal Flying Corps train. The war ended with the Armistice in November 1918. 1919 Amelia returned to the United States to live with her mother and sister in North-ampton, Massachusetts. She took an all-girls auto repair class in the spring of 1919, and then spent the summer at Lake George. In the fall, she enrolled as a pre-med student at Columbia University in New York. 1920-1921 Amelia left Columbia University in the summer of 1920 at her parents‘ urging, and joined Edwin and Amy in Los Angeles in an effort to try and help them keep their marriage intact. In December, Amelia attended her first air meet, at Daugherty Field in Long Beach. She took her first ride in an airplane with Frank Hawks (December 1920). Amelia met pilot Neta Snook and asked her to provide

flying lessons. She also met her future fiancé Sam Chapman, who was living as a boarder in her parents‘ home. On January 3, 1921, Amelia started taking flying lessons with Neta Snook. In July, Amelia purchased her first airplane, a second-hand yellow Kinner Airster she called ―The Canary.‖ She worked in a photogra-phy studio and as a filing clerk at the Los Angeles Telephone Company to help pay for her plane and flying lessons. She began cutting her waist-length hair, inches at a time, so her mother wouldn‘t notice. That same year, she submitted four poems to Poetry magazine, under the alias Emil Harte. On December 15, 1921, Amelia took and passed her trials for a National Aeronautic Association li-cense. Two days later, she participated in exhibition flying at the Pacific Coast La-dies Derby at the Sierra Airdrome in Pasadena. 1922 In the summer of 1922, Amelia was pictured in the Los Angeles Examiner with her Kinner airplane, and in the article she was quoted as saying she wanted to fly across the continent in the following year. She set her first aviation record, an un-official women's altitude record of 14,000 feet, at Rogers Field under the auspices of the Aero Club of Southern California (October 22). 1923 Amelia appeared as one of the attractions at an Air Rodeo at Glendale Airport (March). She was granted her airline pilot‘s license by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (May 16). She became engaged to Sam Chapman at about this time, and began working in a photography studio. When the studio met with financial troubles, Amelia was forced to give up the job, but she decided to set up her own photographic business for a short time, and began taking her cam-era with her everywhere. She sold her first Kinner airplane. 1924 Amelia bought her second Kinner airplane, which she shortly thereafter sold to buy a Kissel roadster car she called the ―Yellow Peril.‖ In June, she drove with her mother from California to Massachusetts , stopping along the way to visit Yo-semite and Yellowstone parks. Amelia and her mother settled in Massachusetts with Muriel. Amelia‘s parents divorced. Amelia underwent a sinus operation to alleviate her chronic sinus headaches. She then returned to Columbia University in September 1924. 1925 In May 1925, Amelia left Columbia and returned to the Boston area. For a few weeks she taught English to foreign students at a Harvard University summer ex-tension program. From June to October, she worked as a companion in a hospital for mental diseases, but she found the work too confining and the pay insufficient.

1926 Amelia began working part-time as a social worker at Denison House, Boston ‘s oldest settlement house. There, she taught English to Syrian and Chinese children and their parents. 1927 Amelia became a full-time resident staff member at Denison House in the autumn of 1927, and was also elected Secretary to the Board of Directors. She joined the Boston Chapter of the National Aeronautic Association. She also invested in a project to build an airport and market Kinner airplanes, becoming a director of the company that shortly afterward built Dennison Airport on the Quincy Shore Res-ervation Boulevard. Amelia began appearing in the newspapers occasionally, pro-moting aviation and advocating women pilots. She wrote to fellow pilot Ruth Nichols about forming an organization for women fliers. 1928 In April 1928, Amelia received a phone call while working at Denison House. The caller, Captain Hilton H. Railey, asked Amelia if she would like to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. After checking his references, Amelia enthusias-tically agreed to the adventure, though she kept this information secret from her family and friends in order to prevent a competitive race across the Atlantic with other pilots. She met George Putnam, who, along with Hilton Railey was repre-senting the sponsors of the flight. The idea for the flight was formulated by Amy Guest, who had purchased the plane and originally planned to complete the flight herself. Guest later financed the mission. On June 17-18, 1928, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean (as a passenger). The flight was from Trepassey Bay, Newfoundland, to Burry Port, Wales on a whirl-wind-powered Fokker F7 airplane named the Friendship. The plane had been fit-ted with pontoons and was piloted by Wilmer (Bill) Stultz, with Louis ―Slim‖ Gordon serving as mechanic. Richard E. Byrd served as technical consultant for the flight. After the Friendship flight, Amelia shopped at Selfridge‘s in London and danced with the Prince of Wales. She met Lady Mary Heath and bought her Avro Avian airplane. On her return voyage to New York aboard the S.S. President Roosevelt, Amelia met Captain Harry Manning, who instructed her in navigation. Upon return to New York, the Friendship crew was honored with a parade to City Hall, where New York Mayor Jimmy Walker gave Amelia a medal and key to the city. Similar celebrations followed the fliers in Boston, Medford, and Chicago. Amelia later wrote her first book, 20 Hrs. 40 Min, about her experience aboard the Friendship. She went on to complete the first solo round-trip transcontinental flight by a woman across the United States (September-October 15, 1928), and began a series of lecture tours organized by George Putnam to publicize her new

book. Amelia announced publicly that she had ended her engagement to Sam Chapman (November 23). She was appointed Aviation Editor for Cosmopolitan magazine, and began writing several aviation articles a year for the publication. 1929 Amelia acquired a single engine Lockheed Vega airplane. She competed in the Women's Air Derby race from Santa Monica to Cleveland (also called the ―Powder-Puff Derby‖), the first cross-country race for women, finishing in third place. She was appointed Assistant to the General Traffic Manager at Transconti-nental Air Transport (now TWA) with special responsibility for promoting avia-tion to women travelers (July 1). Amelia helped organize The Ninety-Nines, Inc., the first women pilots‘ organization (November 2), and later became the organiza-tion‘s first president in 1931. George Palmer Putnam and Dorothy Putnam di-vorced in December 1929. 1930 In addition to her position at Transcontinental Air Transport, Amelia accepted a public relations job with Pennsylvania Railroad. Along with Eugene Vidal and Paul Collins, Amelia formed the New York, Philadelphia, and Washington Airway Corporation, an airline that offered hourly round-trip service between the cities, in the spring of 1930. Amelia set the women's world flying speed record of 181.18 mph (July). She became vice president of Ludington Lines, a commercial airline that had its inaugural flight on September 1, 1930. Her father, Edwin Earhart, fell very ill and Amelia went to visit him in September. He died of stomach cancer later that month. Amelia acquired her transport pilot‘s license in October. She ac-cepted George Putnam‘s proposal of marriage, and in November she and George attained a marriage license in Noank, Connecticut. She became the first woman to fly an autogiro in the United States on December 14, 1930. 1931 Amelia was named the first president of The Ninety-Nines, the first women pilots‘ organization (1931-1933). She married George Palmer Putnam at his mother‘s home in Noank, Connecticut (February 7). She was elected Vice-President of the National Aeronautical Association in 1931. Amelia acquired an autogiro and set an altitude record of 18,451 feet at Willow Grove, Pennsylvania in a whirlwind-powered Pitcairn (April 8). On May 22, Amelia bought the Pitcairn autogiro, but a few weeks later sold it to the Beech-Nut Packing Company, who promptly loaned it back to her for flying it with their logo prominently attached to its side. She completed her first solo transcontinental flight in an autogiro as a flying ambassa-dor for the Beech-Nut Packing Company, becoming the first person to make a transcontinental flight across the United States in an autogiro (May 29-June 22). During the flight, she crashed the autogiro in June in Abilene, Texas and was later

reprimanded in writing by the Department of Commerce. 1932 Amelia wrote her second book, The Fun of It. In May, despite a failed altimeter, dense fog, and a fire from her exhaust manifold, Amelia became the first woman (and second person) to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She had flown from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland to Londonderry, Ireland in her single engine Lock-heed Vega (May 20-21, exactly five years after Lindbergh made his solo flight across the Atlantic). With this flight, Amelia became the first person to cross the Atlantic twice by air nonstop, setting a record for the fastest Atlantic crossing (13 hours and 30-40 minutes) and the longest distance flown by a woman. Paramount News flew Amelia to London, where she stayed at the American Embassy with Ambassador Andrew Mellon and his family. She was awarded the Certificate of Honorary Membership of the British Guild of Airpilots and Navigators, only the second non-British pilot to receive the honor. She visited with the Prince of Wales and Lady Astor, and met George Bernard Shaw. Amelia then went to Paris, where she was presented the Cross of the Legion of Honor. There, she attended the Air Races and laid wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the monument to the Lafayette Escadrille. From Paris, Amelia and George went to Rome for private meetings with Mussolini and the Pope. They then traveled back to Paris, then on to Brussels for lunch with the Belgian King and Queen, followed by the presenta-tion to Amelia of the Cross of the Chevalier of the Order of Leopold. On June 15, the couple sailed back to the United States on the Ile de France. On June 21, Ame-lia and George were guests of honor at the White House with President and Mrs. Herbert Hoover. The National Broadcasting Company relayed the event across the nation. President Hoover presented Amelia with the National Geographic Soci-ety‘s prestigious gold medal (June 21). She was the first woman to ever receive this award. On July 29, Congress awarded Amelia the Distinguished Flying Cross. Again, Amelia was the first woman to receive the award. She also received honor-ary membership in the National Aeronautic Association. Amelia won the Harmon Trophy as America's Outstanding Airwoman for 1932, and was awarded the Cross of Knight of the Legion of Honor by the French government. The same year, Amelia set the women's record for the fastest non-stop transcontinental flight (Los Angeles, California to Newark, New Jersey) in 19 hours and 5 minutes (August 24-25, 1932). Amelia sold her plane to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to be placed on permanent exhibition in their aviation room. That same year, she chris-tened the Hudson Motor Cars new automobile line, the Essex Terraplane. 1933 Amelia visited the White House as a guest of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. She participated in the National Air Races and in July she broke her own North

American transcontinental record with a flying time of 17 hours, 7 minutes, 30 seconds from Los Angeles to Newark. Amelia won the Harmon Trophy for Amer-ica's Outstanding Airwoman for the second year. She resigned as Vice-President of the National Aeronautic Association. 1934 Amelia launched a fashion house to manufacture and market clothing designed by her. Her first shop opened in Macy‘s in New York. It was initially a success, but by the end of the year the venture was shut down. In November, the Earhart/Putnam home in Rye caught fire and many of Earhart‘s earliest papers burned, in-cluding poems she wrote in her schooldays. Amelia won the Harmon Trophy for America ‘s Outstanding Airwoman for the third year in a row.1935 Amelia became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean from Hono-lulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California (January 11-12). This was also the first flight in which a civilian aircraft carried a two-way radio. Later that year, she became the first person to fly solo from Los Angeles, California to Mexico City, Mexico by official invitation from the Mexican Government (April 19-20) and became the first person to fly solo from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey (May 8). She was the first woman to compete in the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio , joining the race at the last minute with Paul Mantz. Earhart testified before the U.S. Senate regarding plans to place aviation under control of the Interstate Com-merce Commission. She was named America's Outstanding Airwoman by the Harmon Trophy committee, and announced that she‘d accepted an appointment at Purdue University as a consultant in the department for the study of careers for women. Amelia continued her stint at Purdue, serving as part-time career coun-selor for women and an advisor in aeronautics, until her disappearance in 1937. While at Purdue, she resided in Duhme Hall, the south unit of Windsor Halls. She was the featured speaker at Purdue‘s conference on Women‘s Work and Opportu-nities in December 1935. 1936 Amelia and Albert Einstein spoke at the opening of the New York Museum of Sci-ence and Industry. Amelia testified before a Senate sub-committee on air safety, campaigned for the 1936 Democratic Party, and was honored by women geogra-phers that same year. In July, Amelia acquired a Lockheed Electra 10E airplane that she called her ―Flying Laboratory.‖ The plane was financed by Purdue Uni-versity. With her new airplane, Amelia began seriously planning for a flight around the world at the equator. 1937 In early 1937, to help finance Amelia‘s world flight, George Putnam arranged for

Gimbels in New York to sell letter covers that Amelia would carry with her, and, along the route, mail back to collectors. Ten thousand of the covers sold. Amelia began her round-the-world flight at the equator in Oakland, California and set a new record for fastest east to west (Oakland to Honolulu) travel in 15 hours and 47 minutes (March 17-18). After landing, the plane was moved to Luke Field near Pearl Harbor, where it was refueled. On takeoff from Luke Field for Howland Is-land, Amelia ground looped the plane and badly damaged it (March 20). The air-plane was repaired at the Lockheed plant in California and a second round-the-world attempt started, this time departing from Miami, Florida and traveling from west to east (June 1). After completing 22,000 miles of the flight, Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan departed from Lae, New Guinea, and disappeared some-where en route to tiny Howland Island, losing radio contact with the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Itasca on July 2, 1937. President Roosevelt authorized a massive search for the fliers, but the search was abandoned on July 18. George Putnam continued to finance his own search for Amelia and Noonan until October 1937. 1939 Amelia Earhart was declared legally dead in Superior Court in Los Angeles, CA (January 5).

Assignment: Create a 1 page graphic timeline of what you see as the most important events in Amelia Earhart‘s life.

Amelia Earhart Vocabulary

airfield altimeter altitude aviation cockpit courage determination disappearance disembark eastward faraway heroine instruct intrepid invention

legend legendary lurch mechanic mysterious navigation overcome prejudice quest solo spunk successful transatlantic westward zeal

1. airfield

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2. altimeter

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3. altitude

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4. aviation

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5. cockpit

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Amelia Earhart Vocabulary

Name: _________________________________ Date: ____________________ Write the definitions for each.


6. courage

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7. determination

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8. disappearance

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9. disembark

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10.eastward

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11.faraway

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12.heroine

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13.instruct

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14.intrepid

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15.invention

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16.legend

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17.legendary

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18.lurch

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19.mechanic

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20.mysterious

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21.navigation

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22.overcome

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23.prejudice

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24.quest

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25.solo

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26.spunk

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27.successful

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28.transatlantic

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29.westward

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30. zeal

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Using as many of the vocabulary words that you can, write one paragraph or a short poem about the life of Amelia Earhart.

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Questions for Thought and Research

1. Why was it difficult to have a career in aviation in the 1920‘s & 1930‘s2. Why was it particularly difficult for women to become pilots in that time? 3. What kind of person was Amelia Earhart? What can you surmise as her

strengths and/or weaknesses? 4. What was Amelia‘s role the first time she crossed the Atlantic by plane?5. What happened during Amelia‘s second attempt to go around the world in a

plane? 6. What was Amelia‘s ‗Friendship Flight‘?7. What were Amelia Earhart‘s contribution to aviation?8. How did Amelia Earhart contribute to the advancement of women‘s issues?

Choose 4 of the 8 questions above. Research each and on a separate piece of paper, write what you have learned and your thoughts around what you have found out during your research.


Additional Unit Ideas

1. Create a small book about Amelia Earhart‘s life to share with a younger child.2. Create a ‗teaching‘ poster on her life or one event in her life.3. Write a newspaper article about an event in the Earhart‘s life.4. Write a 3 or 4 days worth of journal entries that Amelia may have written

during her last trip. 5. Build a replica of Earhart‘s plane (Electra)6. Create a PowerPoint presentation teaching about Earhart‘s life

accomplishments.


amelia earhart unit 4th - 8th grades preview

Education