Unit Plan
University of California

University of California Museum of Paleontology: Stories From the Fossil Record

For Students 4th - 9th
This colorful, interactive site demonstrates how fossils can be used to discover a range of information about the past. Topics include Past Lives, Paleoecology, Geologic History, and Biodiversity.
Website
Other

Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History: The Chumash People of California

For Students 9th - 10th
A thorough look at the Chumash people of California. Read about their unique plank canoes, basketry, language, and cave paintings. Many pictures of artifacts and drawings accompany the information.
Unit Plan
University of California

Ucmp: Life Has a History

For Students 9th - 10th
University of California site showcases how different types of organisms exist on the Earth and the history of life.
Website
San Diego Natural History Museum

San Diego Natural History Museum

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides general information, exhibits, museum news, etc. about the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Unit Plan
Other

California State Parks: Redwood Ecology

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
The California State Parks presents a unit of four lessons plus a videoconference with one of their rangers regarding the ancient redwood forest ecosystem. The videoconference is a virtual tour through one of two redwood forests in...
Unit Plan
Other

California State Parks: Redwood Ecology

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
The California State Parks presents a unit of four lessons plus a videoconference with one of their rangers regarding the ancient redwood forest ecosystem. The videoconference is a virtual tour through one of two redwood forests in...
Website
University of California

University of California, Davis: The History Project

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
The History Project is a growing collection of lesson plans, teaching tools, digitized images, and documents for the teaching of history. Includes assignments for having students apply analytical skills to primary sources.
Lesson Plan
University of California

History Project: Debate Over the California Constitutional Convention, 1878 1879

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Lesson on immigration, conflict and nativism in which students examine primary source documents to evaluate public policy and attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in California, 1878-1879.
Handout
Other

Hastings Natural History Reservation: Native Grasslands of Coastal California

For Students 9th - 10th
Discover the mysteries of the native grasses of coastal California. Content includes a focus on identifying, finding, and growing native grasses.
Interactive
Other

The California Gold Country: The Mining Camps

For Students 9th - 10th
This site is based on the book The California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited by Elliot H. Koeppel. This page provides an interactive map showing gold mining camps that have survived and exist as towns today. Most of the place names...
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Delivering the Goods: Watsonville. California 1895

For Students 9th - 10th
Railroads changed agriculture. As railways linked farms to a wider commercial world, city dwellers could buy fruits and vegetables year-round. Farms became commercialized, often specializing in single crops and tied to the ups and downs...
Handout
Other

Montana Junior College: Mining History and Geology of the California Gold Rush

For Students 9th - 10th
The physical characteristics, history, and mining of gold in California are examined in this thorough site.
Website
Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of American History: Community Dreams: Santa Cruz, California 1876

For Students 9th - 10th
Discover how connecting Santa Cruz, California to the national railroad network in the late 1800s helped the town prosper and change.
Primary
Calisphere: University of California Libraries

University of California: Calisphere: Social Reform 1950s 1970s: Watts Rebellion

For Students 9th - 10th
Primary source photographs portray the issues and history surrounding the Watts Riots of California, and how the community came together.
Website
Museum of the City of San Francisco

Virtual Museum of San Francisco: Leland Stanford, Governor of California

For Students 9th - 10th
Site contains a biography of Stanford, a history of the Stanford mansion in Sacramento, and more.
Lesson Plan
Digital History

Digital History: Chapter 7: Affirmative Action and the Case of Alan Bakke [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Article presents an overview of the history behind the birth of 'affirmative action'. Includes a discussion of the Supreme Court case of Alan Bakke v. the University of California and student exercises that test comprehension of the topic.
Article
Henry J. Sage

Sage American History: Oregon Boundary Dispute and Oregon Fever

For Students 9th - 10th
Article outlining the disputes and events in the 1840s leading to the acquisition of the Oregon Territory which included land west of the Continental Divide between northern California and the Province of British Columbia.
Website
Other

State of California: Immigration Station Angel Island

For Students 9th - 10th
Memories of Angel Island immigration station are sometimes bittersweet as the Station was designed to "Exclude new arrivals." Site provides the interesting history of this immigration station of the West.
Article
Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum

Cprr History Museum: Nelsons' Pictorial Guide Books: Central Pacific Railroad

For Students 9th - 10th
Contains Nelson's pictorial guide-books, a fascinating look at the journey on the Central Pacific Railroad from Utah to California, including time schedules and descriptions of scenery.
Website
Oakland Museum of California

Gold Rush: California on the Eve Californios

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource presents information about the Spanish influence in California before the Gold Rush.
Website
Kidport

Kidport: The California Gold Rush (1848 to 1859)

For Students 6th - 8th
From here, access simple write-ups on the San Francisco Gold Rush. Topics covered include: "Life of a 49er," "Foreign Miners," "Law and Order," and "After the Gold Rush."
Article
Other

De Young Museum: Analyze California Art Objects (I Notice . . . I Wonder . . .)

For Students 9th - 10th
This pdf file is a multi-discipline analysis of the painting "View of Donner Pass", which guides one through the process of asking questions about an artwork in order to understand it's historic relevance.
Article
A&E Television

History.com: California's Little Known Role in the American Civil War

For Students 9th - 10th
Though far from the main fighting, California made an outsized contribution to the Union victory, mostly in the form of gold and troops. California proved pivotal to the Union war effort, propping up the economy with its vast gold...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Five Views: A History of American Indians in California

For Students 9th - 10th
A history of five tribes in the California Native American culture area.

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