Learning Goals
Students will be able to analyze primary and secondary sources about Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Vanderbilt to compare vertical integration, horizontal integration, trusts, and monopoly power as strategies for industrial growth.
Students will be able to evaluate how strikes, immigrant labor, antitrust complaints, and reform campaigns shaped business decisions and public opinion during the Gilded Age.
Students will be able to construct a defensible market strategy for a Gilded Age micro-venture by using evidence from historical case studies and stakeholder perspectives.
Students will be able to revise and rebut their strategy in response to critique, simulation events, and counterarguments by explaining warrants and weighing evidence.
Students will be able to justify which Gilded Age growth tactics were most effective and most ethically defensible by synthesizing evidence across sources and stakeholder viewpoints.
Products
Individual Evidence-Based Gilded Age Argument Brief
Each student writes a one-page argument that takes a clear position on the most effective and defensible Gilded Age growth strategy. The brief must use credible historical evidence, explain reasoning, and address a counterargument with rebuttal.
Industrial Tycoon Pitch Night Simulation Kit and Public Defense
Teams create and present a board-style simulation kit, case-study comparison display, and public pitch defending the strategy they chose for their micro-venture. The defense must show how each member's evidence informed the group plan and how the team revised its approach after challenges and feedback.
No rubric has been generated yet.