Klondike Quest
Grade Levels: 3 - 6
OverviewStudents use a web resource to explore the variety of experiences of the men and women who participated in the Yukon gold rush in the Alaska Territory.
Objective
Locate and record a series of facts from web pages dealing with the
Yukon gold rush.
Materials
Procedures
- Present a short overview of the Klondike gold rush (you may want to visit
the Klondike Gold Rush
National Historical Park beforehand for material).
- Distribute copies of Klondike Quest worksheets.
- Go over the instructions for the worksheet.
- Have students go online to the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park website. You can adjust how much exploring students must do to complete their "treasure hunt" by providing more or less explicit directions about which web pages to investigate. If time permits, there is a great deal of interesting material for students to explore at the various sites.
- If students complete the ten questions, have them look for other factual
"nuggets" and write their own treasure-hunt questions.
Extension
- Talk about get-rich schemes in today's world, from lotteries to wild investments
in the stock market, and how these might compare to the Klondike gold rush.
- Draw up a list of comparisons and contrasts between the experiences of the
California '49ers and the '96ers.
- Explore the site again, only this time focus on the roles of Native Americans
in the Yukon gold rush. Or the roles of women.
