This lesson plan teaches students about natural resources and scarcity through a simulated gold rush activity. Students will collect colored cotton balls that represent different natural resources, with the yellow balls being the most scarce and valuable. They can trade resources and redeem their cotton balls for rewards. The teacher will discuss how finding the yellow balls was difficult. Students will then learn about the real California Gold Rush through pictures and videos, and how it impacted the environment. They will draw and write about what they learned to assess understanding.

1. Lorena Rodriguez
Marisela Cavazos
Claudia Chavez
Tiana Garcia
Gold Rush
Lesson Plan Overview:
This lesson emphasizes the value of natural resources or other items based on its
availability. Students will learn about the Gold Rush and why the gold was so important for
them.
How Geography is used in the lesson plan:
Geography is used in the lesson plan by explaining students about natural resources
and their value. This will also show them the region of California during the Gold Rush. In
addition, It will show them the different routes people had to travel to get to California, and
the regions the routes went trough. It will also give a brief explanation about the
destruction of natural habitat with the construction of the mines.
Part 1: Preparation and Goals
Number of Leaders: One Classroom Teacher, One or Two Parent Volunteers.
Grade(s) of Student Participants for which the Lesson is designed: Grade 2
Number of Sessions: One Session
Length of Sessions: Session 2-3 hours
General Student Objectives

2. Students will learn the value of things. They will understand why some items are more
valuable than others.
Students will learn about scarcity.
Students will learn why people rushed for California's gold.
Students will
Pre-Assessment:
Teacher needs to read Gold Rush Winter, by Claire Rudolf Murphy and
Richard Waldrep, before this activity. Teacher needs to color cotton balls with
food dye or Kool-Aid.
Teaching Materials:
1. Colored cotton balls: yellow and other colors of your choice. You can
also use colored popsicle sticks.
2. A computer with access to interned in the classroom.
3. A popular item among second graders: iPad, iPod, Nintendo DS, Music CD, Movie etc.
Student Materials:
1. Containers
2. Paper
3. Colored pencils, crayons or colored markers.
Part 2: Attention Getter and Procedure
Attention Getter for the Lesson:
The teacher will get the popular item out, and she/he will show it off to her/his students.
Presentation Central Activity:

3. After teacher finishes showing off her/his item, she/he will ask students questions such
as: Why are you so excited about the item? Does everyone have this item? Why? Do
people have to work harder for this or for a pencil? Why? How many pencils are in this
room? How many "popular items" are in this room? What would you do if you found out
the person sitting next to you had a "popular item" right now? What would you do if I
told you there are hundreds of FREE "popular items" on the sidewalk across the street?
All you had to do would be to get out of school, which will get you into trouble? Would
you do it?
Teacher will then proceed to explain that, similarly to the "popular item vs. the pencils" ,
there are natural resources that are more valuable than others.
Main Activity:
Teacher will explain students that she/he has placed colored cotton ball around the
classroom. She/he will also explain that some cotton balls are more valuable than others. She
will have a chart showing the value of the cotton balls. Yellow are the most valuable, but it is the
most scarce. The value of the rest of the cotton balls depends on the teacher keeping in mind that
the most valuable items are more scarce and least valuable items are more abundant. Let the
students know that they can trade their balls with their competitors and give examples.
Make a price for the items, for example: Yellow balls are worth two minutes of extra
time in recess while black balls are worth 15 seconds of extra time in recess, etc.
When students finish collection the "natural resources", have them go to an adult to help
them count their items. Give them a "payment slip" that they can use for their price. They can
spend it all at once or use it in different times.
Practice/Learning Activity:

4. When all resources are gone, have a classroom discussion about the difficulty of finding
the yellow balls. Point out if there were any discussions caused by the cotton balls. Emphasize
how scarce items are more valuable than abundant items. Ask them if they had to move things
around to be able to reach the balls.
After the discussion, explain students about the Gold Rush in California and bring up
similarities between the Gold Rush and the classroom experience with the cotton balls. Let them
know how the environment was destroyed or changed by the miners.
Using the internet, show the students:
Pictures of miners
Maps of traveling routes to California
General pictures of the Gold Rush
Watch a film about the California Gold Rush or Make a field trip to a museum about the
California Gold Rush.
Closure:
After the teacher finishes showing the images, she/he will have another classroom
discussion recapping what everyone learned. She will then ask the students to draw a picture
about the California Gold Rush. After they draw the picture, the students will write about their
pictures.
Part 3: Assessment and Follow Up
Student Evaluation:
Students will be graded based on neatness, completeness, spelling and creativity in accordance
with the rubric below.

5. Rubric:
Points Grammar/ Neatness/Completeness Colorfulness/ Overall Participation in
Spelling Creativity Activities
No spelling Fully complete and neat Full of colors 100% participation
5 or grammar Very detailed
errors
A couple of Fully complete and Colors but not 75% Participation
4 spelling or somewhat neat. much detail on
grammar Neat but not fully creativity
errors complete.
Four or Half complete Few colors and 50% participation
3 more Somewhat neat little creativity
spelling and on details
grammar
errors
6 or more At least 1/3 complete and Few colors and 25% participation
2 spelling and not very neat no creativity
grammar
errors
7 or more Less than 1/3 complete No colors and Less than 25%
1 spelling and and not neat or no creativity participation
grammar not complete at all

6. errors
Application/Reflection/Self-Lesson Evaluation:
I plan to evaluate the effectiveness of my work based on the response of the students. I will see
the student's understanding through the discussion after the activity. I will be able to find out if
there's a need for adjustments.
Follow-Up Activities or homework:
A follow up activity is to have the students bring a list of the things that are most valuable to
them. Another follow up activity is a fieldtrip to a history museum.