Website Spotlight: Gold Rush

Website URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

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I ask the students to work through the following links:

Gold Rush Introduction
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/

Special Features: Online Poll--Journey of the Forty-Niners
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/sfeature/poll.html

Over the Oregon-California Trail
http://pbskids.org/wayback/goldrush/journey_oregon.html

Panama shortcut
http://pbskids.org/wayback/goldrush/journey_panama.html

Around Cape Horn (the tip of South America)
http://pbskids.org/wayback/goldrush/journey_capehorn.html

Special Features: Gold Rush Game: Who Will Strike it Rich?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/sfeature/game.html

1. White man from upstate New York
2. Californio man from Los Angeles
3. Chinese man
4. Chilean man
5. White woman from Missouri

Mexicans in the Gold Rush
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/peopleevents/p_mexicans.html

Chinese Immigrants and the Gold Rush
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/peopleevents/p_chinese.html

Stephen Spencer Hill and African Americans in the Gold Rush
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/peopleevents/p_hill.html

Map: 8 major "strikes" in the California Gold Rush
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldrush/map/index.html

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/Expansion

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT