Grade Range: 9-12Resource Type(s): Interactives & Media, Lessons & Activities, Primary SourceDate Posted: 11/10/2009
This teacher's resource challenges students to think about the gold nugget that began the California gold rush as a valuable resource for understanding westward expansion and the idea of Manifest Destiny. It includes a preliminary activity intended to introduce students to doing history with objects and 3 lesson plans focused on the Gold Rush experience. Also included are annotated links to other online resources that are related to western history and the California gold rush.
This resource is included in 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.
Discussions, Multiple activities, Multimedia instruction, Museum education, Thematic approach, Large Group instruction, Small group instruction
This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at ...
Manifest Destiny, migration, curator, analysis, primary source, expansion, Smithsonian, artifact, immigration, Women, exploration, the West, object based learning, museum, gold, oral history, museum work, California, material culture, westward expansion
An African-American family moves to Kansas after the Civil War to create a new life.
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