Americans wanted to fulfill Manifest Destiny, and this pattern continued with the Mexican War. The resource specifically teaches about the Mexican War through a variety of exercises including a research project, group work, brainstorming...

Young scholars compare contemporary cultural differences with historical differences based on population percentage. In this cross-curriculum Gold Rush/math lesson, students analyze aspects of California's Gold Rush population and...

There is a lot to learn from art. This teacher's guide provides you with extensive background information, activities, and a scripted commentary to accompany a slide show on French artists in California during the Gold Rush Period. The...

Explore the Great Depression! Discover the challenges people experienced during the time period. Learners investigate photographs from the Dust Bowl and WWII era and create a story line about the photographs, writing a newspaper article...

Using a variety of online resources, learners study life and society in California during the gold rush. They use a map to identify area where gold was located, explore pre-selected websites, describe mining practices, and create an...

The unit study of Angel Island Immigration Station concludes with scholars using information from the previous lessons to craft a news story about the Angel Island program.

Using the insight they have gained into the experiences of detainees at the Angel Island Immigration Station, young poets create their own free verse poems that they feel captures what it may have felt like to be an immigrant interned on...

Young historians learn more about the history of Angel Island Immigration Station through their analysis of primary source images. Guided by a list of inferential questions, scholars learn how to make and record observations on a...

A poem carved on Angel Island's walls is the guiding text of a lesson that challenges scholars to put movement into a written piece of art. After warm up-activities, learners play a game of "Pass the Clap" and "Pass the Line," in which...

Case files for Angel Island immigrants are kept at the regional archives in San Bruno, California. Groups study one such case file to understand the life histories and different experiences of the internees and then report out their...

Imagine being interrogated by someone you don't know about minute details of your life. Imagine that the interrogator is matching your responses to the answers of other family members. Imagine how you would feel knowing that the...

Director Felicia Lowe's film Carved in Silence splices together re-enactments, interviews, and actual film footage to tell Angel Island Immigration Station's story. Viewers use a film matrix to record new information they learned from...

Primary source texts provide scholars with the background information they need to understand why Chinese peasant farmers were driven to emigrate. After underlining keywords, phrases, and/or lines in the texts, individuals craft a...

As part of a study of Angel Island Immigration Station, young historians examine the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first restriction on the United States immigration based on race and nationality. They complete a matrix identifying...

Prepare young historians for a study of Angel Island Immigration Station with a lesson examining primary and secondary source materials, maps, and websites. Using what they have learned, individuals create a map of Angel Island, labeling...