In this paper, we propose a simple method of observing the collision-dominated Child-Langmuir law in the course of an undergraduate laboratory work devoted to studying the properties of gas discharges. To this end we employ the dc gas discharge whose properties are studied in sufficient detail. The undergraduate laboratory work itself is reduced to registering the voltage drop across the electrodes, the discharge current as well as the cathode sheath thickness. We can easily perform the measurements of all three quantities with sufficient accuracy in a laboratory equipped with vacuum pumps. (Contains 6 figures.)