Thoughtfully introduce this project by identifying the emotions that this history will evoke.  You can practice an intentional pedagogy of emotions, by adding guiding language such as “This is hard history. You might feel sadness, anger, or other strong emotions. I invite you to be aware of your feelings as there will be opportunity to reflect on them later. The bigger goal of learning about this hard history is to invite us all to use our feelings and our knowledge and to act so that it never happens again.”

Choose the filter and options on The Gold Road site, students should select one person from the three great empires to do additional research on. They will then design a poster or presentation to share with the class that provides facts that indicate their importance (i.e. Who, What, Where, When, Why) as well as identifies the importance of the figure in terms of a lasting legacy in the region and beyond. 

Encourage students to select someone where a link can be made with gold. For example, students could choose to research the writings of Al Bakri (1040-1094) who wrote about Ghana after he learned from Muslim travelers. Primary sources of his writings mention gold. Students could also choose Mansa Suleyman (1341-1360), the brother of Mansa Musa, among others in Mali. Leo Africanus (b. 1492)  is an interesting person to research during the time of the Songhai empire. To look up people whose name comes up alongside gold, turn on the people layer and select a time period. All the people for that time period will come up. Then search for gold in the search box, which will reduce the list of people to those whose markers mention gold.