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Lesson Plans > Social Studies > Grades 9 - 12 > Investing in Early America Game: Early Industrial, Transportation, and Communications Revolution
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Kinesthetic Learner
Kinesthetic Learner
Visual Learner
Visual Learner
Auditory Learner
Auditory Learner
Technology Integration
Technology Integration

Investing in Early America Game: Early Industrial, Transportation, and Communications Revolution

Economic growth in the American national period

 

Grade Level: 9-12

Concept: Economic growth in the American national period

Estimated Duration: 50 minutes

 
Objectives
Students will be able to:
  • list the economic opportunities present in the national period
  • measure the impact of the industrial, transportation, and communications revolutions on individuals and the nation
Materials
White board or overhead
Textbook
 

Differentiation Strategies

These strategies are used to meet the varied needs of all learners:

  • for visual learnersVisual learners: incorporates tables for comprehension and analysis
  • for auditory learnersAuditory learners:encourages class discussion and small-group discussion
  • for kinesthetic learnersKinesthetic learners: students will move around the classroom, forming groups
Key Vocabulary
 
Capital
Free enterprise
Industrialization
Interchangeable parts
Investment 
 
Procedures
Before the Lesson
Warm Up
  • for auditory learners Ask the class to compare life in the United States in 1800 to life today. Discuss the technological changes that make life today so different.
  • for visual learners On the whiteboard, list the following changes that affected people’s lives in the early to mid-1800s: roads, canals, steamboat, industrial machinery, railroads, telegraph, cotton gin, interchangeable parts
  • for auditory learners Ask students to discuss the effects of each of these on individuals and the nation. Describe industrialization.
Direct Instruction
  • for auditory learners Tell students that most of these changes could only become widespread if investors were willing to risk capital in order to develop enterprises. Identify capital.
  • for visual learners Show the overhead transparency Table of Investment Opportunities.
  • Tell the class that each person will have opportunities to “invest” in any of these enterprises. The timing of the investments is very important. They should try to get in on the “ground floor.” To do that, they should review pages in the text to find out what was happening in each of these areas. While the text may not mention each specific enterprise, it gives important information about these enterprises.
Practice
  • for visual learners Give each student the Investment Opportunities Game sheet handout that says they have $1,000 to invest and includes a copy of the Investment Opportunities chart. On this they will keep a record of their investments.
  • Tell the class that each person will assume an investor identity, which will influence how they choose to invest. Some students will join an investment club to minimize their investment risk. Others will invest alone. A few investors will get to choose whether to invest alone work with a group.
  • Copy and distribute one investor identity (from Investor Identities handout) per student. There are 16 identities. Half the class will be in a group and half will invest alone. You may choose to create mixed ability groups that pair students who need additional support with students who can provide it.
  • for kinesthetic learners Ask students to create their investment groups or move to a table for lone investors, depending on their investor identity.
  • Tell students that will have opportunities to invest at four different rounds—1820, 1830, 1840, and 1850. They must choose only one or two investments in each round and invest $500 in two enterprises or $1000 in one.
  • Ask them to make their investment for 1820. Give them about 2-3 minutes to decide where to invest. They may use their texts as a reference. Investment groups must decide as a group where to invest.
  • for visual learners for auditory learners After each round, announce and write the earnings in the appropriate column (see Investment Opportunities_filled in.pdf for returns). One thousand dollars invested brings the return shown on the left side of the slash; five hundred nets half. 
Assessment
  • Ask students to total their earnings from the five rounds.
  • Ask the students who are working alone to form small groups.
  • for auditory learners Ask all students to analyze with their group their best investment overall. Ask them to speculate as to why investments varied so greatly.
  • for auditory learners Ask students to discuss the implications of their investment strategy, not only what they invested in, but how their investor identity affected their risk.
  • for auditory learners Discuss the reasons that investment returns varied so greatly, focusing on these historical developments:
  • Lowell Textile Mills were just developing in the 1820s but they experienced steady growth afterward as cotton became King in the South.
  • The Lancaster Turnpike opened before 1820 and made good returns until canals and railroads took away much of its traffic.
  • The Ohio and Erie Canal required great capital, so it never really paid great returns and earned very little after railroads developed.
  • Western steamboat companies were also productive until the railroads began to operate in the West in the 1840s.
  • The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad did not carry freight until the late 1830s, but it was very successful after that.
  • The Magnetic Telegraph company did not produce investment returns until the 1840s because of the large investment, but it grew steadily.
Closure
  • Remind students that these enterprises changed American life for the next two centuries and even greater changes occurred after the Civil War.
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