A CHatGPT-Using Learning Activity Pertaining to San Francisco’s Gold Rush Chinese

10 min readJan 28, 2023

Designed for middle school and high school US history students

For this activity, students are to assume that, as a recently hired San Francisco Historical Society employee, they’ve been tasked by the museum’s director to design an exhibit that explores the experience of San Francisco’s Chinese community during the Gold Rush era (1848–1855.)

The students are also to assume that at some to-be-determined date and time, they are to present their proposed exhibit to the Museum Director, with this presentation seeking, in a succinct and persuasive manner, to secure funding for the exhibit.

The students’ presentation may not exceed four minutes in length and should provide the Director with a clear understanding of the exhibit’s main themes and objectives, while avoiding unnecessary details.

The presentation will be followed by a six-minute question and answer session, during which the museum’s director, may ask for clarification or further elaboration on specific aspects of the proposal.

For this activity, students should be permitted to harness the capabilities of ChatGPT as a valuable resource in their research, script-writing, and presentation preparations.

The San Francisco Historical Society is located at 608 Commercial Street, one block from Chinatown’s Clay Steet entrance. The society exists to uncover, preserve, and present, in engaging ways, the colorful and diverse history of our city from its earliest days to the present.

Conducting the Needed Research

When working to design their exhibit, the students should certainly search the internet for relevant information and resources. They should also consider utilizing a variety of other resources (books for example) to gather important information. Additionally, they could use advanced tools such as ChatGPT to help them understand the Chinese community during the gold rush.

Three very good books on the topic of the San Francisco Chinese Gold Rush community can be found below.

Sue Fawn Chung’s book, In Pursuit of Gold, Chinese American Miners, and Merchants in the American West.
Randon Richard’s book, Mud, Blood, and Gold; SanFranscico in 1849
Gordon Chang’s book, “The Epic Story of the Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Worker.”

Chapter 2 (Guangdong) and Chapter 3 (Gold Mountain) of Chang’s, The Epic Story of the Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Worker, should prove especially helpful.

To give you some idea of what you might find there, see below, starting with paragraph 3, “From the deck, if they were allowed topside . . .”

Also this:

Preparing the Oral Presentation

As the students prepare to present their proposed museum exhibit design to the direction of the San Francisco Historical Society, it is essential that they take the time to craft a well-written script. This will not only aid in their organization of ideas but also allow them to present their proposal in a clear and persuasive manner. Whether they choose to write the script independently or seek assistance from CHatGPT, having a script will serve as a valuable tool in effectively conveying their proposal and making a compelling case for the creation of the exhibit entitled, ‘The Chinese in San Francisco during the Gold Rush’.”

The first output from CHatGPT in response to my request for a script was not up to my standards. To rectify this, I supplied CHatGPT with supplementary information and feedback. Over multiple attempts, CHatGPT finally produced a response that fulfilled my requirements, though it still required some additional editing and fine-tuning on my part before it was ready for presentation.

The Oral Presentation Script

A recent request for CHatGPT to generate a script returned a completely inadequate and unsatisfactory result. So I provided CHatGPT with additional prompts and feedback. After SEVERAL iterations, CHatGPT generated a response that met my expectations. though this draft still required some revisions and several adjustments on my end. (To view the script that was crafted by CHatGPT and myself, see below.)

Sir, my proposed exhibit consists primarily of text and images and will be divided into three sections.
The first section will explore the journey of the Chinese to San Francisco during the gold rush, with a specific focus on the departure points, the type of ships the Chinese traveled on, how long the journey took, the conditions the Chinese faced during the journey, and the number of Chinese that made the trip during the Gold Rush.
The second section will focus on what the Chinese experienced during their first 24 hours in San Francisco. Specifically, this section will reveal to the museum visitors the sights and sounds the Chinese encountered when they first stepped off the boat, as well as where the Chinese went and what they did upon arrival. This section will also highlight what the Chinese did if they were hungry and where they would spend their first night. It will also reveal where they would go the next day to purchase gold-digging supplies and to learn how to best travel from San Francisco to the Auburn Gold Fields nearly 150 miles away. To summarize, this section will delve into the Chinese immigrants’ first 24 hours in San Francisco, revealing their initial impressions of the city, where they went for shelter and sustenance, and the difficulties they faced.
The third section will examine the lives of the Chinese immigrants who remained in San Francisco, rather than venturing to the gold fields. This section will explore their contributions to the city’s growth and development, and the discrimination and violence they faced. Visitors will learn about the occupations and daily lives of the Chinese, as well as their contributions to the city’s growth and development. This section will also address the extent to which the Chinese faced discrimination, violence, and anti-Chinese sentiment. This section will also show how the Chinese community helped to shape the city of San Francisco.
Bottom line, sir, I believe that this is not only a story worth sharing but also a story that has been massively overlooked in other exhibits.
I further believe that there is no better place in America to tell this story than on the walls of the San Francisco Historical Society.

Presenting the Script

Now is a great time for the students to actually present their script. In this regard, the below might prove helpful.

Museum Director (to his secretary): “Ok Angel. It’s time to get this show on the road. First I want to hear from Joe. Send him in, please.

Secretary: “He’s on his way in now, Director Kleinrock.”

Museum Director: Thank you, Angel.

(Joe Titan enters the room)

Museum Director: “Joe, great to see you! I understand you have a proposal for an exhibit entitled the San Francisco Gold Rush Chinese Community.

Joe Titan: “I do, sir. My team and I have been working tirelessly to bring a fresh perspective to this important piece of San Francisco’s history.

Museum Director: Well then, please have a seat and let’s begin. I’ll give you four minutes to make your case. Angel will keep time.

Joe Titan: “Thank you, sir. (Joe sits and takes a deep breath) May I begin?

Museum Director: You may

Joe Titan: Director Kleinrock, our proposed exhibit consists primarily of text and images and will be divided into three sections.

The first section will explore the journey of the Chinese to San Francisco during the gold rush, with a specific focus on the departure points, the type of ships the Chinese traveled on, how long the journey took, the conditions the Chinese faced during the journey, and the number of Chinese that made the trip during the Gold Rush.

The second section will focus on what the Chinese experienced during their first 24 hours in San Francisco. Specifically, this section will reveal to the museum visitors the sights and sounds the Chinese encountered when they first stepped off the boat, as well as where the Chinese went and what they did upon arrival. This section will also highlight what the Chinese did if they were hungry and where they would spend their first night. It will also reveal where they would go the next day to purchase gold-digging supplies and to learn how to best travel from San Francisco to the Auburn Gold Fields nearly 150 miles away. To summarize, this section will delve into the Chinese immigrants’ first 24 hours in San Francisco, revealing their initial impressions of the city, where they went for shelter and sustenance, and the difficulties they faced.

The third section will examine the lives of the Chinese immigrants who remained in San Francisco, rather than venturing to the gold fields. This section will explore their contributions to the city’s growth and development, and the discrimination and violence they faced. Visitors will learn about the occupations and daily lives of the Chinese, as well as their contributions to the city’s growth and development. This section will also address the extent to which the Chinese faced discrimination, violence, and anti-Chinese sentiment. This section will also show how the Chinese community helped to shape the city of San Francisco.

Bottom line, sir, I believe that this is not only a story worth sharing but also a story that has been massively overlooked in other exhibits.

I further believe that there is no better place in America to tell this story than on the walls of the San Francisco Historical Society.

Museum Director: “Wow, Joe. That sounds like a comprehensive and engaging exhibit, but before deciding to fund this thing, I have a number of questions I need to ask. But with that said, we don’t have all day, so I’m going to need to put a timer on this. In total, you’ll have six minutes to respond to my question, with Angel starting the timer whenever you speak and stopping the time when I speak. Ready for question #1, Joe

Joe Titan: “I am.

Museum Director: Ok them. Let’s start with . . . . (the museum director then asks his/her question, with a number of other possible follow-up questions appearing below)

In your presentation, you said that section three will address the extent to which the Chinese faced discrimination, violence, and anti-Chinese sentiment. The details, please.
When you said that section one of the exhibit will describe the type of ships the Chinese traveled on, tell me about those ships.
In your presentation, you said that section two will reveal where the Chinese would spend their first night in the city. Where did they spend their first night?
Can you provide any specific examples of the experiences of Chinese immigrants upon their arrival in San Francisco?
How do you plan to measure the success of this exhibit?
When researching this topic, did you either read any books or interview any experts on the topic? Or is your entire exhibit based solely on what you learned in response to a Google request?
Can you tell us about any particularly interesting or surprising discoveries you made while researching this topic?
Tell me what you’ve learned about the “occupations” of the Chinese who ended up living in San Francisco during the Gold Rush.
You said section three of your proposed exhibit will reveal the “contributions” of the Chinese who lived in San Francisco during the Gold Rush to the city’s growth and development of the city.
I don’t recall you mentioning in your presentation the start and stop date of the Gold Rush. Why leave that out?
Will your proposed exhibit mention how the Chinese journeyed from San Francisco to the gold fields? Whether it was by foot, horse, horse-drawn carriage, or train. And the route they took?

Museum Director: “Hey Joe, you hear that? That’s the timer going off indicating that it’s now time for you to go and for me to take your proposed exhibit under consideration.”

Joe: “I understand, sir Thank you for taking the time to hear my proposal.”

Director: “Thank you, Joe. I can see that you’ve worked very hard on this.

Joe: “Thank you, sir.”

Director: “I’ll be in touch soon, Joe. Take care.”

Joe: “You too, sir.”

(Meeting adjourns, Joe gathers his materials and leaves the room.)

In Closing

Now that you have familiarized yourself with this learning activity, are you by chance interested in taking on a similar project in your class, but with a different focus or title?

If so, I have provided a list of thought-provoking exhibit ideas for you to consider.

Chinese adopted by Americans since 1991 and now living in Los Angeles
The Attempt to Purge the Chinese from America in the 1800s
The Chinese in America from 2000 to the present
The Chinese in the San Gabriel Valley since 1965
The Chinese presence in Hawaii before, during, and after WW2.
The Chinese presence on Catalina Island from the time of the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) until the closing of Ning’s Chinese Garden Restaurant (2017)
The music the Catalina Island US Army veterans listened to from 1941–1945
Koreatown before, during, and after the 1992 LA RiotsKoreatown before, during, and after the 1992 LA Riots
The history of Drones: America’s flying robots
The life of my great uncle and other Mexican Americans that served in Vietnam from 1965 until 1973
Mexican Americans During World War II
The life of a distant relative and the presence of other Germans in America from 1880–1987
The history of my born-in-Laos father, and other Laotions, during the US bombing of Laos from 1964 to 1973
The history of Angelos Papadopoulos and other Greeks who immigrated to America in the 1960s.
The Native American mascot controversies in American sport
Mexican American women during WWII.

Use these as a starting point or let your imagination run wild and come up with your own unique concept.

In either case, best of luck as you embark on this exciting and engaging project!

“This blog post is a collaboration between myself and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. While ChatGPT provided invaluable assistance in editing and refining some of the paragraphs, all of the ideas and concepts discussed are solely my own and reflect my own thoughts and perspectives.”