Go West

Social Studies Online

TEACHER John Worthington

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Select and adapt these learning activities to best meet the needs of your students, and to fit the time available:

Starters

1. What is the West?
   Where is the West? Students identify important places on a map of the West. Use the outline physical map and label the following features:
   • The Rocky mountains,
   • the Mississippi River,
   • the Missouri River,
   • the Arkansas River,
   • the Red River,
   • the Great Plains,
   • the Great Basin,
   • the Sierra Nevada Mountains,
   • Coastal Ranges,
   • Great Salt Lake.

   More on Maps

2. When did it happen?
   Use the Timeline of the West to make a History Road. Choose 15 events from the line for your road. Include illustrations for some of the events. If you want some additional events you could look at the PBS television site.

Go West...

3. Why go west?
   
   1. Why did people leave their homes and endure numerous hardships? There were many reasons. Some of these reasons pulled people to the West and some pushed them from their homes.
      1. Read the page Why Go West.
      2. Draw up a two column chart. Head up one column "PUSH" and the second "PULL".
      3. Read each of the passages, summarise the reason each gives for going west and put it in the correct column.
      4. Which do you think were the most important reasons for westward migration? Why?

   2. Use the siteTreasureNet to find an image that illustrates two of these reasons why people went west. Use the photo analysis form to evaluate both of these images.

4. What was the journey west like?
   What do you think the journey west was like?
   1. Think about this question and then share your ideas with another person.
   2. List the class's ideas.
   3. Read some of the diaries that were made by the settlers who made this journey.

5. Women and the West
   Perhaps half of the people who went west were women and yet much of the history of the West ignored the contributions of women.

6. Settlement Affects the West
   As the settlers came to the West that had an impact on the place. Complete a poster sized version of the spider diagram on the effects of settlement. Students work in groups of five and each person takes responsibility for one effect of settlement. Each groups prepares a poster spider map for display in the classroom.

   Bison

   • Buffalo - Bison
   • Extermination of the American Bison

   Railroad

   • The Pacific Northwest

   Environment

   The West that was, and the West that can be

   Native Americans

   • Indian Wars

   Farming

   • Ranching

7. The Impact of Settlement on the Life of the Plains Indian
   The many tribes of Indians who inhabited the Great Plains of the West led a nomadic existence. The natural resource that was most valuable to them was the buffalo or American bison.

8. Follow Up
   The Wild West and the Real West
   Critically watch a western movie or episode from a TV series. How accurately does the move represent the real West?

RESOURCES

Electronic

• Oregon Trail diaries
• Oregon Trail memoirs