Early Mining in Virginia
City
Download as Word
File
AUTHOR: Bill Spencer
HISTORICAL
TOPIC/ERA:
GRADE LEVEL(S):
4+
TIME REQUIRED: This lesson is includes pre-teaching and
a field trip to Virginia City. Pre-teaching will consist of two 45 minute in-class lesson to acquaint students
with information about silver mining and the people who were involved in the
development of Virginia City.
INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUNDNEVADA
STANDARDS: In the mid-1800’s people from all surrounding states and territories as
well as people from Ireland, Germany, China, and Italy swarmed the northern
Nevada mountains, streams and deserts in search of gold. Little did anyone know at that time that the
discovery of silver would help create and sustain the economy of Virginia City. Presidents visited, inventions were
created and money was made and lost. The discovery of the Comstock Lode
attracted tens of thousands of people giving Virginia City the highest percent
of immigrants per capita in the United
States. With all its new found fame, Virginia City was granted entry into the union in 1864.
List all state
benchmark numbers with the descriptive text. Limit this section to no more than 4 standards
Nevada History Standard 6.8.17 Describe the California Gold Rush and the expansion
of the United States.
Nevada History Standard 7.8.5 Describe the
western frontier, including mining, transportation and
Nevada History Standard 7.5.9 Describe the contributions
of immigrant groups to the United
States.
Nevada History Standard 7.12.5 Describe the
role of farming, railroads, mining in the settlement of the West.
STUDENT
LEARNING GOALS/OBJECTIVES:
Students will gain enough prior information to
correctly identify points of attraction in Virginia City. Students will understand the concept of
mining and techniques used to extract gold and silver. Students will be able to
identify names of the founding fathers and explain the impact of how their
roles influenced the people and economy of Virginia
City. Students
will successfully explain the impact of the railroad and its role in the
modernization of Virginia City.
MATERIALS/SPECIAL
ARRANGEMENTS:
Students will be
exposed to history books focusing on Nevada,
pictures of Nevada. Using the classroom Active Board, students
will design and draw mines using several of the techniques used by miners of
that time focusing on the Square-Set Timbering technique. Paper, pencils,
markers, colored pencils and overhead transparencies may be used instead of the
Active Board.
ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES:
Using the Active
Board as a projector and screen, the students will be shown several images of
life in Virginia City in the mid-1800’s. Prior to seeing the photos, the students will
be asked to look for inventions, techniques, people, and forms of
transportation that interest them and take note for further use. After our field trip, students will perform
more research on their subject of interest.
Rough drafts will be hand-written, with final draft being written in the
computer lab. Students will also be
urged to find or draw examples of their subject and incorporate them into their
report.
Examples:
1. Teacher will provide images depicting the
life styles and economy of Virginia City in
the mid-1800’s.
2.The
teacher will facilitate the group discussion and then monitor the interactions
within each student group.
Links
to Images:
http://www.onlinenevada.org/media/?id=19
http://www.onlinenevada.org/media/image/XXD_00015_Virginia_City_overview.jpg
http://www.onlinenevada.org/media/?id=47
http://http-//www.onlinenevada.o#B6680www.onlinenevada.org/media/?id=33
http://www.onlinenevada.org/media/?id=331
EVALUATION OF
STUDENT LEARNING:
Using a pre-test
and post-test to evaluate their knowledge of facts and using their final report
as an indicator of their overall knowledge will be used.
