Lesson: All Aboard!

All Aboard!

Grade Levels: 4-5^th Grade

Time Frame: 3class periods, 45 minutes each.

Subject Matter: Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

Teacher Information:

Mrs. Nancy Wilhelm

Signal Hill Elementary School

Belleville, Ill.

AAM affiliation Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Lesson Plan Description and Rationale:

Students will acquire an understanding of how the railroad was built. They will learn about the people involved and the decisions that had to be made, as well as the brutal working conditions and hardships encountered along the way.

State Standards:

State Goal 16: Understand events, trends, individuals and movements shaping the history of Illinois, U.S. and other nations.

Goal 16A: Apply the skills of historical analysis and interpretation.

Goal 16D: Understand Illinois, U.S. and world social history.

Goal 16E: Understand Illinois, U.S. and world environmental history.

State Goal 17: Understand world geography and the effects on society, with an emphasis on the U.S.

Goal 17A: Locate, describe, and explain places, regions and features on the Earth.

Goal 17B: Analyze and explain characteristics and interactions on the Earth’s physical systems.

Goal 17C: Understand relationships between geographic factors and society.

State Goal 18: Understand social systems, with an emphasis on the U.S.

Goal 18B: Understand the roles and interactions of individuals and groups in society.

Objective:

Students will be able to explore the website and show what they have learned by successfully completing the activity.

Methods:

The students will learn about building the transcontinental railroad through the use of an interactive learning game. The class will be divided into two groups or teams. Half will join the Union Pacific in Omaha, Nebraska, heading west and the other half will join the Central Pacific in Sacramento California, heading east. Each team will help their railroad organization to complete the journey, face different challenges and earn points until they reach the final stopping point-- Promontory, Utah.

Activity:

Divide your class into groups of four. Get ready to begin the adventure! Each group of four continues through this program and will eventually be divided into two groups. One group will choose “The Union Pacific Railroad” and the other will choose “The Central Pacific Railroad”. Each group will then keep track of their progress throughout the adventure.

All of the materials needed and created can be shared by the group and/or class. As each team progresses, post the information on bulletin boards. When the activity has been completed, come together to compare and contrast (Venn diagram) the two railroad companies.

Materials required:

1. Internet access in classroom or lab

http://cprr.org/Game/Interactive_Railroad_Project/indexy.htm

2. Map of the Central Pacific Railroad route

http://cprr.org/Game/Interactive_Railroad_Project/cpmap1.htm

3. Map of the Union Pacific Railroad route

http://cprr.org/Game/Interactive_Railroad_Project/mappage.htm

Evaluation:

At the end of the activity, each student will make a journal entry reflecting on the experience, including the attitudes of both the railroad workers and the students, the difficulty of the various situations workers encountered along the way, and any problem solving that had to take place. Each group of students will turn in the notes and individual journal entries created while participating in this activity.

Keywords for this lesson:

Transcontinental Railroad Interactive game

Promontory Point, Utah

Possible Extensions:

National Parks Service Historical Handbook: Golden Spike

Waiting for the last rails to be laid at Promontory, May 10, 1869

The joining of the rails

Central Pacific’s “Jupiter” and Union Pacific’s No. 119

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/hh/40/hh40q.htm

First Train into Sargent