Provide students with the Student Context and time to review it briefly if not completed already. Then, depending on access to classroom technology, divide students up in order to ensure that each student or group has access to a tablet or computer for this online activity.

Ask students to choose one trade item from The Gold Road to focus on and ask questions of, as an archeologist would. Objects/artifacts to select from include- Books, animal hides, Gold, leather goods, kola nuts, camels, pottery, salt, dates, cloth, cowrie shells or horses. Students should then:

• Analyze trade items and respond to the Questions and Poem about an Object handout.
  • Explain that these questions serve as a guide for engagement with the objects and there might not be answers to all the questions. 
  • Encourage students to hypothesize unknown answers based on their existing knowledge of the history of gold & trade.