The Big Question for this Daytrek:

EXPLORING ISSUES

Gold is a metal that has been hard to find and to mine, yet it is beautiful and something a lot of people want to own. Gold is something that people find very valuable. A valuable item is worth a lot of money or is very useful or important. Other things can be valuable to people, depending on what they like to see or do.

Think about some of today's most "valuable" things for kids your age. Start by making a list of what kids your age like to trade. A long time ago kids traded marbles! Then baseball cards were very valuable to trade. What items are kids trading today? Think about action figures, dinosaurs or other toys or items? Then, answer these questions for the items on your list.

• Why do you like these objects?
• What would happen if you found out that your best friend had the one you really wanted?
• What if you learned there was a big room full of these things on the other side of the school?

Trading Activity: Follow the directions of your teach to try a trading activity with your class.

After the activity, your teacher will help you and your class talk about the following questions?Which colors were the easiest to get? Which were the hardest? Why do they think this was the case? Can you think of any other things that are very valuable because they're hard to get? What about the trading fads you listed at the beginning of this lesson? Are some types of this item (e.g., a particular trading card) more valuable than others?

MINING FOR INFORMATION

Go to: http://www.minerals.org.au/education/primary/primary_resources/rockfiles/gold

and read about gold, it’s history and uses.  Answer the following questions:

What is gold?

What has gold been used for?

Explain why people have always valued gold.

What have people done to find and mine gold?  Has this been risky or has it required hard work?

Go to:  http://www.eduplace.com/kids/socsci/ca/books/bkd/sources/bkd_template.jsp?name=balloum2&state=ca and find out what people have done to find, mine or own gold?  Were there rewards for working hard to get gold?

PROCESSING INFORMATION

There are other items or goals in life that might be just as valuable to you as gold and that you might be willing to work hard to have?  As a class make a list of valuable “things” like a picture of your grandfather or “things” like getting good grades or being someone’s hero.  When you add something to the list, explain why it is valuable to you and how hard would you work to have it.

Draw a picture of yourself or write a story about yourself working really hard to have something of value to you from the list your class put together.

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