Teaching American History for All
MDUSD/UCB H-SSP
4th Grade Lesson: Environmental Impact of the Gold Rush
Developed by: Carol Wallis
Teaching American History Focus Question:
4th Grade Yearlong Question:
Unit Focus: Gold Rush
Unit Focus Question: How did miners and mining impact California?
Unit Working Thesis: Mining had a lasting effect on California by changing the geography,
growing towns and cities, increasing population diversity and altering environmental conditions.
Lesson Focus – How did miners and mining change the environment of California?
Lesson Working Thesis: Environmental changes occurred in California because of the use of
various methods of retrieving gold from rivers and rocks.
Reading Strategies: Cloze reading strategy, Deconstruction of sentences
Writing Strategy: Chronological order writing sheet
Time: 2 - hour long lessons
Reading Sources: text by teacher
Resources:
Primary source- California Notes by Charles B. Turrill
Secondary Source – Myth and Reality-The Gold Rush and it’s Legacy, Oakland
Museum of California Education Department
This lesson will take place at the start of the unit.
Procedure:
Day oneSet the scene- review geography of the time, People inhabiting the area. Review the
story of the discovery of gold in California (Heads together group technique)
Introduce vocabulary, check for understanding (pair share)
Students will be able to write sentences with vocab words
Provide students with text and pictures
Reading -Engage students in Cloze reading strategy. Spend time pairing picture to
mining practice.
Hand out sentence deconstruction
Work together on it.
HW- read the paragraph to your parents
1
Day twoHave students read paragraph to partner. Review sentence deconstruction.
Begin work on Chronology reading strategy sheet. Students work in small
groups
Students will complete the chronology writing strategy sheet
Underline key words of focus question.
Write topic sentence and fill in the sheet.
History –Social Science Standard 4.4 #2-Explain how the Gold Rush transformed the economy
of California including types if products produced and consumed, changes in towns and
economic conflicts between diverse groups of people
Language Arts Standard Reading 2.1 – Identify structural patterns found in informational text
Writing 1.1,- Select a focus, and organizational structure, and point of
view based upon purpose, audience, length, and format requirements
2
Vocabulary
Enable- to allow someone to do something.
I enable my students to do well on tests by giving them appropriate assignments.
The mother enabled her son to learn to ride a bike by giving him training wheels.
The mother enabled her child to lose weight by purchasing fruits and veggies instead of chips.
Continual- to keep going on and on.
A clock works in a continual way.
The air conditioner works continually during the hot summer months.
The continual ringing in her ear made it necessary for Nancy to go to the doctor.
Obtain-to get
The Young man obtained his driver’s license.
He obtained good grades on his report card.
Depleted-to run out of something
The car was depleted of gasoline.
He depleted all the paper in his notebook.
The battery was depleted of energy.
Thumbs up Game (kids thumb up if it can be true, thumbs down if not)
I took out the garbage because it was depleted.(down)
Her steady breathing was continua.l(up)
Maria’s good grades enabled her to go to a good college .(up)
The miner obtained fun.(down)
3
Since the discovery of gold in California, miners
have used many methods to recover it. As a result of
these methods, there was damage to the environment.
Round iron pans enabled the miners to separate gold from
soil at the bank of a river. It soon became difficult to find
gold in this way. Because of this, a rocker or cradle
became a popular tool. By gently rocking the cradle-like
box, miners were able to remove gold pieces from mud.
Since this method did not supply the miners with a lot of
gold, they developed the sluice box. This sluice box
provided miners with a method of continually running
water carrying soil away and leaving gold to sink to the
bottom of the box. Then the earth became depleted of
easy obtained gold. Because of this, in 1852, a machine
using water and hoses was invented. Hydraulic mining
used water pressure to blast away at gold bearing quartz.
This hydraulic mining caused greater damage to the
environment, washing mountainsides into rivers and
streams causing these waterways and their tributaries to
become blocked and polluted.
4
NAME_______________________________
-Time marker
-Connector words
-Prepositional phrase
-Circumstances
Who (subject)
Participants
Action words
(verbs/ verb
phrases)
Who, What, Where
Message
Since the discovery of miners
gold in California
used
many methods to recover
gold.
As a result
of theses
methods
there was
damage
Round iron pans
enabled
Because of this
(difficulty of finding
gold with pans)
rockers and
cradles
became
By gently rocking the
cradle-like box,
miners
were able to
remove
Questions or conclusionsWhat connections can you
make from this information?
to the environment.
the miners to separate gold
from the soil at the bank of
the river.
a popular tool.
gold pieces from mud.
5
Since this method
(rockers and cradles)
did not supply miners
with a lot of gold,
They
(the miners)
developed
the sluice box.
The sluice box
provided
miners with a method of
continually running water
carrying soil away and
leaving gold to sink to the
bottom of the box.
became
depleted
of easily obtained gold.
Then ( when using the the earth
sluice box)
hydraulic mining
was invented.
Hydraulic mining
used water
pressure to blast
away
caused greater
damage
Because of this, in 1852,
This hydraulic
mining
at gold bearing quartz.
to the environment, [washing
mountainsides into rivers and
streams causing these waterways
and their tributaries to become
blocked and polluted.]
Lesson Question: How did miners and mining impact the geography of California?
6
7
NAME_______________________________
-Time marker
-Connector words
-Prepositional phrase
-Circumstances
Who (subject)
Participants
Action words
(verbs/ verb
phrases)
Who, What, Where
Message
Questions or conclusionsWhat connections can you
make from this information?
Since the discovery
of gold in California,
As a result
Round iron
pans
Because of this
By gently rocking the
cradle-like box,
Since this method
8
(rockers and cradles)
did not supply miners
with a lot of gold
The sluice box
provided
miners with a method of continually
running water carrying soil away
and leaving gold to sink to the
bottom of the box.
Then (when using the
sluice box)
Because of this
Hydraulic
mining
This hydraulic
mining
Lesson Question: How did mining and miners impact the environment of California
9
NAME_________________________
Chronology, Sequence
Time Markers, Key, or Transition Words
, Round iron pans ….enabled miners to separate gold from the soil in a
river bank.
,Because it was difficult to find gold with the pans…..rockers and cradles
became popular tools.
,Since this method did not supply miners with enough gold , they
developed a sluice box. The sluice box had water continually running down a long
board.
The earth soon became depleted of the easily obtained gold.
,As a result, hydraulic mining was invented.
Water pressure was
used to blast away at the hard to get to gold bearing quartz.
10
Because of all these methods, damage was done to the environment.
This damage can be seen in the clogging of rivers and the loss of fish in rivers
and streams. The bay was also affected.
,
Lesson Question: How did miners and mining impact the environment of California?
11
NAME_________________________
Chronology, Sequence
Time Markers, Key, or Transition Words
,
(Transition)
,
_____
,
,
,
Lesson Question : How did miners and mining impact the environment of California?
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Writing Strategy
Question: How did miners and mining impact the environment of
California?
Topic sentence:_______________________________________________
___________________________________________________________
(Transition)__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
(Transition)__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
(Transition)__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
(Transition)__________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
(Conclusion)_________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
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TEACHER KEY that Quotes Passage
Mining Methods: Descriptions & Effects
Chronology
Gold Mining Method and Picture/s
Description
Round Iron Pan
A pan used “to separate gold
from soil at bank of river”
FIRST
Rocker and Cradle
SECOND
What was the effect?
Outcome?
EFFECT:
“Soon became difficult to find
gold in this way”
“By gently rocking the cradle- It “did not supply the miners
like box, miners were able to
with a lot of gold”
remove gold pieces from mud”
14
Chronology
Gold Mining Method and Picture/s
Description
Sluice Box
‘continually running water
carrying soil away and
leaving gold to sink to the
bottom of the box”
Hydraulic Mining (1852)
“Machine using water and
hoses…to blast away at gold
bearing quartz.”
THEN
FINALLY
What was the effect?
Outcome?
“the earth became depleted of
easy obtained gold”
“caused greater damage to the
environment, washing
mountainsides into rivers and
streams causing these
waterways and their tributaries
to become blocked and
polluted.”
Lesson Question: How did miners and mining impact the environment of California?
15
NAME_________________________
Mining Methods: Descriptions & Effects
Chronology
Gold Mining Method and Picture/s
Description
What was the effect?
Outcome?
Round Iron Pan
FIRST
Rocker and Cradle
SECOND
16
Chronology
Gold Mining Method and Picture/s
Description
What was the effect?
Outcome?
Sluice Box
THEN
Hydraulic Mining (1852)
FINALLY
Lesson Question: How did miners and mining impact the environment of California?
17