1.  Dandelions Book Summary: Zoe’s family travels west from Chicago, Illinois to the Nebraska Territory in an ox driven covered wagon. Setting: 1880’s Nebraska Territory Links to Primary Sources: Covered Wagon Windmill Barbed Wire Steel Plow Horace Greeley "Go West" Objective: Explain how the natural environment influenced travel to and settlement of the west. Author: Eve Bunting Dandelions New York, Harcourt, 1995

2.  How and Where Did People Travel?  Activity: Using the blank geographic map provided, map the possible route taken by Zoe and her family from Chicago, Illinois to the Nebraska Territory in a covered wagon. Then label the important natural features of the environment with the indicated color:  Appalachian and Rocky Mountains (brown)  Mississippi, Columbia, Colorado, and Snake Rivers (blue)  St. Louis and the Great Plains (green)

3.   Activity: Complete a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the use of each technology during the late 1800’s and today.  Are they still used today? If so, how? How did Technology Make Life Easier in the West? Windmill 1880 Windmill 2012

4.   Horce Greeley: "Go West" 1871 Horce Greeley: "Go West" 1871  Read Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight's Diary Entries 1853 Read Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight's Diary Entries 1853  Activity: After the reading primary sources, complete a simulated journal:  Explain how the environment affected you while traveling West. What did you see? Be sure to explain how the mountains, rivers, terrain, changes in climate, and changes in technology influenced your travels and where you decided to settle. How Do We Know What Traveling West Was Like?

5.   NCSS: III. People, places, and environments  South Carolina Social Studies Standard 5-2: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the continued westward expansion of the United States.  SS-5-2.1 Explain how aspects of the natural environment— including the principal mountain ranges and rivers, terrain, vegetation, and climate of the region—affected travel to the West and thus the settlement of that region.  SS-5-2.2 Illustrate the effects of settlement on the environment of the West, including changes in the physical and human systems. Standards

6.   Covered Wagon Covered Wagon  Windmill Windmill  Barbed Wire Barbed Wire  Steel Plow Steel Plow  Horace Greeley "Go West“ Horace Greeley "Go West“  Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight's Diary Entries Mrs. Amelia Stewart Knight's Diary Entries  Reviewer: Charlie Proveaux Sources