Daily Lesson Plan

8
th
grade American History
Day 10: Panning for GOLD!

Objectives: TSW analyze how to pan for gold (DOK 4). TSW investigate what life was
like during the California Gold Rush (DOK 2).

Materials:
Sand
paper cups
Spray painted BB/fishing weights (different sizes- worth different amounts of
money)
o 40-50 BB size split shots
o 30 medium split shots (size 7)
o 10 oval fishing weights (size 10)
o 5 oval fishing weights (size 8)
o 3 oval fishing weights (size 6)
o 1 large fishing weight (larger than the others)
5-6 (depends on how many groups, per class) pans
3-4 jugs of water

Opening Set: Today we are going to mine for gold! We will see which group found the
most gold!

Learning Procedures (Tasks):

1. Divide students into 5 or 6 groups.
2. Before the students come into class, be sure to distribute the gold into the
sand cups. (Make sure they are not visible.
3. If the weather is accommodating, take the assignment outside. If not, the
classroom will work. Just move the desks to one side of the room and set up
claims around the room.
4. Give the gold nuggets a value
Size Value in Gold Nuggets
a. BB size 5
b. Medium 10
c. Small oval 15
d. Medium oval 20
e. Large oval 50
f. Largest 100
5. Each group will have 8 cups at their mining site.

6. Read your students this: In just a few minutes you are going to participate in
a gold rush. You will stake a claim and pan for gold. It wont be real gold; it will
be pieces of lead that have been painted yellow. Lead, like gold, is heavy and will
stay in the bot- tom of your pan. Save all the gold you find. After the gold rush
we will add up the value of the gold you found to see how much you earned.

Before you start panning for gold you must stake a claim. You do this by
making a sign that says MINING CLAIM then having each team member sign
it. When this is done one member of your team takes the sign to one of the
mining claims. The first one to a claim gets it, but if there is a tie the team with
the neatest sign gets the claim. Each team gets only one mining claim. When all
the claims are taken, the rest of the team joins the one member that staked the
claim and everyone begins panning. You can only pan from the cups that are on
your claim and each claim has eight cups.

7. Once the students have broken up into groups of no more than 5. They will
sign their names and take it to their site to stake their claim.

8. Once all the claims have been established, the students can begin panning for
gold. They will pour the sand coups into the pans that are filled with water. The
teacher can walk around and give instruction.

9. When they are finished, have them keep the gold and bring it to you to record.
See which team had the most.

Closure: Today you learned about what it was like to pan for gold. There were
many more variables involved when panning for gold. Such as bad weather or even
someone trying to jump your claim. Many miners did not care about the impact that
was left on the land when they mined. Miners tended to be messy and only cared
about getting the gold. We also learned yesterday that many cultures were involved in
the gold rush. The Chinese were not often allowed to have claims and many were run
off, some of them did go back to claims that had been abandoned to see if anything
had been left behind. I hope you found this lesson to be fun!



SOURCE:
http://www.socialstudies.com/pdf/GoldRush_fa.pdf