This infographic enables students to explore multiple points related to gold discovery in the western United States in the latter half of the nineteenth century and discover what resulted.

Welcome to a fascinating course on cowboys and Conestogas, migration and miners, expansion and ethnicity. This course will teach students how to critically analyze and evaluate competing perspectives on western American history, with an emphasis on the century spanning from 1830, at the time of the Indian Removal Act, to 1930 and the beginnings of the Great Depression. Students will use primary sources, class readings, discussions, and assignments to explore the cultural and historical underpinnings of the American West.  The final project for this course will be a research project where they will showcase their ability to analyze and prioritize information and reflect on a historical event.  The course is aligned with the state of Utah's Core Standards for Social Studies, U.S. 1 Strand 6: Expansion Standards 6.1 and 6.2

In this student-facing resource, students will learn about events that motivated the territorial expansion of the United States. The resource is organized as a learning menu, allowing students to choose the resources they would like to explore to learn the concepts. The options include links to Nearpod presentations and interactives.

This lesson plan is designed to help middle school teachers teach their students create an Adobe Spark Page Western Expansion Timeline. The activites in the lesson can be completed in two class periods (45 min each). The lesson plan is created by the author (Jill Anderson) using resources from Adobe Spark and Creative Commons.