Google Earth Lesson Plan on California Gold Rush

DESCRIPTION
Students should begin to learn about the concept of value and
why some items are considered more important than others
are. This will relate to a geographical understanding of natural
resources and the reasons why people work very hard to get
certain things, such as during the California gold rush. This
lesson will have students go through a simulation to learn
about value, abundance, and being short with supply, and
asks them to think about the things they would be willing to
work very hard for to have.

GOALS/OBJECTIVES

CONTENT AREAS

Geography, History, economics California

Gold Rush
SKILLED ADRESS
Bartering, Writing, Thinking skills,
and
grouping

TOPIC

The values of The Gold Rush

TEACHER

Ms. Stith

GRADE

3rd and 4th

Total of Students

19

Male

10

Female

Visual/Spatial learners

Kinesthetic learners

Verbal/linguistic learners

Interpersonal learners

Logical/Mathematical

DURATION

Social Studies

INTRODUCTION
Ask students if they know
anything about gold. What do
people use gold for? Is it
valuable? Why do people like
gold?

2 hours

RELATED TOPICS/
RESOURCES
Boom Town: The Gold Rush
Link:
http://www.csun.edu/~sg4002/cou
rses/417/readings/gold_rush.pdf

ASSESSMENT
Classroom discussion,
Group
activity and writing assignment

Discuss with the class where

Gold is from and how its been
on this earth for about 150
years, also incorporate a slide
show with it.

NOTES ABOUT LESSON

Google Earth path should be
mapped out

NON- DIGITAL MATERIALS

NEEDED
Crayons, construction paper,
paper

DIGITAL MATERIAL NEEDED

Computer with internet,
Google

OBJECTIVES FOR
STUDENTS
Students will
Ask students what is the most

Ahead of time.

And pencils and journal

Earth, projection device.

popular thing valued by their age

group right now
Have them take out their journals
and explain to them why gold was
valued and have them write why
is gold valued to them after
learning about it.
use Google Earth to view the
land and sea routes for the
California gold rush, and discuss
what journeys might have been
like;
view pictures of miners and
mining facilities during the
California gold rush, and discuss
whether the work looks easy or
difficult; and discuss with groups
Draw the things they would be
willing to work very hard for; and
write stories or draw pictures of
themselves working very hard for
one of these things in their groups
and have them discuss it in class.

DISPLAY
Use Google Earth to show them
the gold rush land and sea routes.
Make sure they realize that the
wagon trail involved crossing
mountains. Use the suggested
links to plot route:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrus
h/ or
http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/journey.ht
ml

OPENING
Ask students to name items
that kids their age are trading
today. Discuss and ask
questions with the class of what
they could identify with in the
world now pertaining to why
Gold was so important back
then.

CLOSING
Use Google Earth to show
students the gold rush region of
California. Tell them that Native
Americans already lived in this
region when the miners arrived.

SUGGESTED
ASSESSMENT
Suggested Student
Assessment:
Have students make lists or draw
pictures of the things for which
they would be willing to make
long, difficult journeys or work
very hard. Make sure students
realize that these don't have to be
material objects but can also be
nonmaterial things such as getting
good grades, being in good shape,
or having the opportunity to
explore a new place. Have them
write stories or draw pictures of
themselves doing this hard work

and obtaining the things they

desire? Have students share their
stories or drawings with the class,
and compare their ideas.

WHOLE GROUP ACTIVITY: WHAT DO YOU VALUE?

use different colored blocks. Make the colors available in different levels of abundance (e.g., yellow can be the most less than,
red can be greater than , and the others can fall in the middle). Distribute the items at random throughout the class so that
each student has the same number of items in different colors. (Items are NOT evenly distributed by color!) Ask students to
trade with one another to try to get one item of each color. You can have students trade within the whole class or
within smaller groups. Stop the activity after about 15 minutes. Discuss the trading process with the class. Which colors
were the easiest to get? Which were the hardest? Why do they think this was the case?