Activity: Where is my gold mine?

YEAR: 5

OVERVIEW OF THE ACTIVITY

For this geography activity students will be required to locate the places where the Gold
Rush of the 1800s occurred on both a large paper map and an online map by reading source
material and reading maps to locate the areas.
CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
Geography:
Develop geographical questions to investigate and plan an inquiry (ACHGS033)
The influence people have on the human characteristics of places and the management of
spaces within them (ACHGK029)
GENERAL CAPABILITIES:
Literacy
Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing

Comprehend texts

Word Knowledge

Understand learning area vocabulary

Critical and Creative Thinking

Inquiring identifying, exploring and organising information and ideas

Organise and process information

Identify and clarify information and ideas

ICT
Creating with ICT

Generate ideas, plans and processes

Generate solutions to challenges and learning area tasks

STATEMENT OF IDENTIFICATION
For this activity students will be reading and gathering information from source documents
about the names of locations where gold was found which incorporates literacy and critical
and creative thinking. Students need to comprehend the texts and draw information from
them to use on their maps. ICT is also incorporated with students needing to plot the points
for their map on an online, interactive website. Students also need to form questions to
begin a geographical inquiry which incorporates inquiring critically and creatively.
CROSS CURRICULUM PRIORITIES
Sustainability
World Views
OI 5 World views are formed by experiences at personal, local , national and global levels and are linked to individual and community
actions for sustainability

INQUIRY QUESTION: Where can I stake my claim?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson students will have the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to:
Construct inquiry questions
Find a location to stake their claim
Draw information from sources
LEARNING INTENTIONS:

We will construct inquiry questions

We will locate an ideal location on a map for a stake claim
We will read and locate information in source documents
RESOURCES:
Zeemaps
o www.zeemaps.com
Laptop
Sitehoover websites
Books
TEACHER KNOWLEDGE
For this activity, the teacher needs to know where the gold was found in the Victorian Gold
Fields and have an understanding of the Golden triangle and how to find it on the map to
introduce the concept to the students. The teacher needs to understand how to plot the
points on the interactive map.
STUDENT INSTRUCTIONS
1. Form 3 inquiry questions to help you plan an inquiry into where you will stake your
claim for gold
a. Consider location, climate, population, vegetation, resources
2. Using your zee map, locate possible towns where you may find gold
3. Using your inquiry questions, research the towns using books and websites and how
much success miners have had in finding gold there
4. When you have performed your inquiry, use your zee map to plot the point where
you will stake your claim and write a paragraph on why you chose that point keeping
in mind your inquiry questions.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUTION OF STUDENT LEARNING:
Assessment for learning is conducted in this lesson through the use of students having to
identify and plot mapping points using information found in previous lessons. Assessment as
learning is used when students are constructing their inquiry questions to see if students
have an understanding of developing geographical inquiry questions.
LESSON MODIFICATION TO ACCOMMODATE INDIVIDUAL STUDENTS:
The activity can be alternated to be for pairs for the students who do not quite understand
the mapping concept however for the writing of inquiry questions students are to work
individually .