State Standards

Kansas

  • Mathematics
    • 4NC3
    • 4A1
    • 5NC
    • 5A1
    • 5A2
    • 6A2
    • 7A5

Missouri

  • Mathematics
    • 6NO3D

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Lesson 9: $600 in Gold

Background

As John Brown was trying to purchase weapons to take to Kansas, he solicited contributions from wealthy acquaintances. Have students recall what they learned about what John Brown was doing in Boston in 1857. One of Brown's contributors gave Brown $600 worth of gold. This lesson examines the equivalence in today's dollars and the amount of gold that $600 actually represented in 1858. It compares the cost of an ounce of gold and has students examine what $600 in gold could buy both then and now.

If your students don't have access to the WWW, you may want to download the appropriate pages and copy them for the students to use during this lesson.

Objectives

Following the completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

  1. Compare the equivalence of $600 of gold in the mid 1800s and today;
  2. Find various ways to calculate $600 worth of gold in 1858.

Materials

Access to a computer linked to the Internet for access to these Web sites:
http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-historical-price-of-gold.htm
http://www.22karatjewelers.com/goldprice.htm

Time

1 class period

Procedure

  1. Ask students how John Brown got the money to purchase his pikes and other weapons to take to Kansas (contributors). One person gave John Brown $600 worth of gold. Have students guess how much gold that would be then and in today's dollars. (You can find the actual price of gold for today by going to http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm).

  2. Have students go to http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm. Use this price of gold per ounce to have students calculate how many ounces of gold John Brown would have today if he was given $600 worth.

    Students may use some variation of this formula: $600 = (price of gold today) x X(ounces). Let students explain how they found their answer. They may have discovered several ways to solve the problem. Let students talk about the different ways this problem can be solved.

  3. Now have students determine how much gold John Brown would have had using the prices in the late 1850s. You can find the historical cost for gold at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-historical-price-of-gold.htm. Ask students if they should use the price given for 1855 or 1860 if John Brown received the gold in 1858. In this case the price was the same ($21/oz) but their ability to interpolate dates can be practiced using other dates in this chart. You can check these prices on the chart also found at http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm.

    Have students use a different method than they used before to determine how many ounces of gold John Brown would have received. They may use proportions, algebraic expressions, or other methods to solve this problem.

  4. Have students report out on how much gold John Brown would have received. Resolve any differences in answers so that the class has a common understanding of how much gold Brown had to purchase supplies and weapons.

    Have students save their calculations. This answer will be used in the next lesson.

Extension

The study of gold is interesting to students. Their experience with gold is usually with jewelry, which is lightweight. Students may be interested in constructing a cube that represents a ton of gold. Go to http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm to find the dimensions of a ton of gold. Let students figure out how to construct this cube.

They can also determine how much a ton of gold would cost on today's market by going to http://www.22karatjewelers.com/goldprice.htm which will provide the price of gold and silver updated each hour. This site gives the cost of gold in US dollars per ounce. Some mathematical conversions will be necessary prior to finding the cost of a ton of gold in US dollars.

This site also provides the cost of other precious metals which younger students may find interesting. These students can use a bar graph to compare today's price of gold, silver, palladium, and platinum. Allow students to return to this site over several days to chart the price change over time for these metals.

Social studies teachers can use the site, http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-historical-price-of-gold.htm, to examine the change in price of gold over time. Are there historical events that might have affected the price of gold? What might have caused the jump in price from 1975-1980? You can find historical information along with yearly highs and lows at http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/curency/goldmarketprice.htm .

Essay Contest

Encourage your students to participate in the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Essay Contest. You can find more about it by visiting www.kcopera.org/About/johnbrowneducation/essay.

Lesson created by Martha A. Henry and Keith S. Murray, M.A. Henry Consulting, LLC.