Grade Range: 9-12Resource Type(s): Lessons & Activities, Interactives & Media, Primary SourceDate Posted: 11/7/2009
This object-based learning activity revolves around the gold nugget that began the California gold rush. In this resource, students will learn how examining the gold nugget can help them understand the story of the gold rush and its importance to the story of westward expansion. After exploring the gold nugget and its importance as a source of historical information, students will visit the forum section of the site to hear the Museum's curators and historians discuss the object and then use what they have learned to complete the Virtual Exhibit Activity.
This resource is part of The Object of History, a cooperative project between the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and George Mason University's Center for History and New Media.
Multimedia instruction, Museum education, Self-paced learning modules, Thematic approach
This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at ...
Smithsonian, exploration, immigration, material culture, object based learning, the West, Women, migration, oral history, analysis, primary source, gold, California, museum, westward expansion, museum work, expansion, artifact, Manifest Destiny, curator
An African-American family moves to Kansas after the Civil War to create a new life.
Read More