Curated OER
Railroads across the Country
Students see how to read and trace transcontinental routes on a nineteenth-century railroad map of the United States. They identify their home city or a nearby city on the core map and explain how railroads helped travelers back in the...
Scholastic
Perfect Postcards: Illinois
Connect the geography and history of Illinois using an art-centered lesson plan on the railroads. The railroad connected once-distant places, particularly in the Midwest. Using research, class members create postcards of fictional...
Curated OER
The Wild, Wild West
Sixth graders research the history of the transcontinental railroad. They use advertising propaganda techniques to design and create a poster encouraging people to explore the West by rail.
DocsTeach
The Settlement of the American West
What do Abraham Lincoln and the Transcontinental Railroad have in common? Using a set of primary source documents, including pictures, maps, and treaties, class members link together the common themes of expansion into the American West....
DocsTeach
What Else Was Happening During the Civil War Era?
Examine a time of political division and upheaval— not unlike our own—using firsthand accounts. While study of the Civil War often takes center stage in the classroom, the 1850s and 1860s were a period of profound change in other areas...
Curated OER
The Railroad Booms!
Students discover how the railroads contributed to the interdependence between farms and towns. Using the railroads, they describe the effect of them on western settlement and the relationship between their location and the availability...
Curated OER
USH Industrialization: The effects of the railroads
Eleventh graders interpret a time zone map and describe the effects of the railroads. They discuss what a continent is, what you think it means if something is transcontinental and offer descriptions about some different inventions from...
Curated OER
American West: Railroads
In these American West worksheets, students cut out the cards related to the American West and the railroads. Students match the cards together.
Curated OER
Transcontinental Railroad
Eleventh graders explain the development of the American West following the Civil War. They also explore the Homestead Act of 1862 and the Pacific Railway Act of 1862. They also participate in a simulation about the American West.
Curated OER
Traveling the Transcontinental from Yesterday to Today
Pupils examine the impact of the train on the physical landscape and spatial organization of America. They read and analyze various poems, analyze maps, and develop a list of the positive and negative changes brought by the introduction...
Curated OER
Goldentail's Rounding Railroad
In this number puzzle worksheet, students solve 24 equations in each of two sets of multiplication and division problems. They circle each answer and round them to the nearest whole number. They use the secret code that is shown in a box...
Curated OER
History and Government of the United States
In this U.S. worksheet, learners take notes in a graphic organizer as they read several passages, then answer four comprehension questions.
Curated OER
Industrial Revolution: A Definition
America sure did have a few growing pains during the Industrial Revolution. Share the problems, causes, effects, and reformation that marked the turn of the century and shift in policy during US industrialization. This slide show...
Curated OER
The Golden Spike
Students investigate modern transportation in the 19th century by examining artifacts. In this U.S. history lesson, students read the story Joseph's Railroad Dreams, and discuss the Golden Spike used in the first transcontinental...
Annenberg Foundation
Masculine Heroes
What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...
Curated OER
THE GAM SAAN ADVENTURE ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK IT?
Fourth graders study the lasting influence of the Pony Express, Overland Mail Service, Western Union, and the building of the transcontinental railroad, including the contributions of Chinese workers to its construction. They explore the...
Curated OER
Stop Action and Assess Alternatives
High schoolers stop action and determine how history may have been altered. In this historical perspectives lesson, students consider how the Cherokee Removal, the Transcontinental Railroad, the Immigration Act of 1924, and the dropping...
Curated OER
Read a Transportation Story
Third graders research the building of a transcontinental road. In this railroad history lesson, 3rd graders discuss past and present transportation. Students look at historical photos and compare and contrast photos from today.
Curated OER
Developing a Gateway to the West
Students identify various topographical features that contribute to the growth of a city. They identify how military strategies contribute to the growth of a city.
Stanford University
Great Plains Homesteaders
"Westward, ho!" may have been their cry in spite of the hardships. Using a series of photographs by Solomon D. Butcher of those who ventured west, class members consider what life was like in the 1800s for those who embarked on the...
DocsTeach
Evaluating Perspectives on Westward Expansion
Although popular culture tells the story of the American West simplistically, its reality is far more complex. Native American tribes—while already on the land—didn't have the same interests, and conflicts between white settlers and...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Westward Expansion: Image and Reality
As your young historians study Westward Expansion, practice in-depth primary source analysis with the documents and guidelines presented in this resource. They will examine a lithograph and excerpts from two letters written by a Nebraska...
New York State Education Department
US History and Government Examination: August 2011
Using primary source documents, pupils consider how the United States' democratic story has evolved over time. A second essay question examines the role of geography in history, and multiple-choice questions sharpen test-taking skills.
Curated OER
Using and Creating Timelines
Eleventh graders analyze information presented in a timeline and then create a time line. They put the following events in order from oldest to recent: Telephone invented (1876), Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890), First transcontinental...