Web Quest – Student Style

http://teachertech.rice.edu/Participants/sboone/TATN5/

Susan Boone Web Mastering, Westside High School, HISD [email protected]

Web Sites are developed for many reasons.

 I have students create an in-depth web site that will be used to 'teach' a specific mathematics objective, while utilizing information on the web to provide data, or resources for a required application that relates to the math objective. The project is divided into four parts:  I. Research, II. Development, III. Production and IV. Perfection.

WebQuest – Bernie Dodge

 "A WebQuest," according to Bernie Dodge, the originator of the WebQuest concept, "is an inquiry-oriented activity in which most or all of the information used by learners is drawn from the Web. WebQuests are designed to use learners' time well, to focus on

using

information rather than on looking for it, and to support learners' thinking at the levels of analysis, synthesis, and evaluation."

Planning Your Topic

 Students will decide on a partner and begin developing the topic for the math lesson. Suggestions:  Visit Math Web Sites      The Math Forum section (http://mathforum.org/) -- especially the tools ENC (http://www.enc.org/) TeacherTECH @ Rice University (http://teachertech.rice.edu/Lessons/) MSTE NCTM – (http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/ )--especially the java applets – (http://www.nctm.org/high/ ) --especially illuminations  Review Planning Document – (on CD)

Helpful URLs

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Lesson Factory ( http://www.lessonfactory.com/ ) A source for countless original lesson plans from educators across the country. Here you'll find great ideas from teachers for teachers. The Math Forum ( http://mathforum.org/library/resource_types/lesson_plans ) Math Forum’s Internet Library of Mathematics Lessons EdHelper – ( http://www.edhelper.com/ ) dedicated to providing teachers a single shop for educational resources Web Quest serve as a resource to those who are using the WebQuest model to teach with the web. By pointing to excellent examples and collecting materials developed to communicate the idea, all of us experimenting with WebQuests will be able to learn from each other. ( http://webquest.sdsu.edu/ ) -- This site is designed to Readings and Training Material (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/materials.htm)

Sample WebQuest

http://teachertech.rice.edu/Materials/TeacherTECH/lessons/lessonexample2005/index.html

 Introduction -- include file name, title, and content for this page  Task  Process  Evaluation  Conclusion  Citations

(Student) Task

         

Describe crisply and clearly what the end result of the learners' activities will be. The task could be a: problem or mystery to be solved; position to be formulated and defended; product to be designed; complexity to be analyzed; personal insight to be articulated; summary to be created; persuasive message or journalistic account to be crafted; a creative work, or anything that requires the learners to process and transform the information they've gathered. If the final product involves using some tool (e.g., HyperStudio, the Web, video), mention it here. Don't list the steps that students will go through to get to the end point. That belongs in the Process section.

(Student) Process

 To accomplish the task, what steps should the learners go through? Use the numbered list format in your web editor to automatically number the steps in the procedure. Describing this section well will help other teachers to see how your lesson flows and how they might adapt it for their own use, so the more detail and care you put into this, the better. Remember that this whole document is addressed to the student, however, so describe the steps using the second person.

(Student) Process … cont.

 First you'll be assigned to a team of 3 students... Once you've picked a role to play.... ... and so on. Learners will access the on-line resources that you've identifed as they go through the Process. You may have a set of links that everyone looks at as a way of developing background information, or not. If you break learners into groups, embed the links that each group will look at within the description of that stage of the process. These links are of course also on the Resources page.

(Student) Process … cont.

 In the Process block, you might also provide some guidance on how to organize the information gathered. This advice could be suggestions to use flowcharts, summary tables, concept maps, or other organizing structures. The advice could also take the form of a checklist of questions to analyze the information with, or things to notice or think about. If you have identified or prepared guide documents on the Web that cover specific skills needed for this lesson (e.g. how to brainstorm, how to prepare to interview an expert), link them to this section.

(Student) Evaluation

 Describe to the learners how their performance will be evaluated. Including a rubric would be an excellent way to do that. Specify whether there will be a common grade for group work and/or individual grades. Poster Rubric -- example

(Student) Conclusion

 Put a couple of sentences here that summarize what they will have accomplished or learned by completing this activity or lesson. You might also include some rhetorical questions or additional links (also listed on Resources page) to encourage them to extend their thinking into other content beyond this lesson.

Resources

 List here the web sites needed to complete this lesson. Start with the ones the students will need, then list the sites the teacher needs. List here the sources of any images, music or text that you're using. Provide links back to the original source. Say thanks to anyone who provided resources or help. Include a link back to The WebQuest Page so that others can acquire the latest version of this template and training materials.

(Student) Introduction

  This document should be written with the student as the intended audience. Write a short paragraph here to introduce the activity or lesson to the students. If there is a role or scenario involved (e.g., "You are a detective trying to identify the mysterious poet.") then here is where you'll set the stage. If there's no motivational intro like that, use this section to provide a short advance organizer or overview. Remember that the purpose of this section is to both prepare and hook the reader. It is also in this section that you'll communicate the Big Question (Essential Question, Guiding Question) that the whole WebQuest is centered around.

Teacher Introduction Page

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This page should start with your lesson title, your name and an e-mail address. Next it should describe the origin of the lesson. For example: This lesson was developed as part of the San Diego Unified School District's Triton Project, a federally funded Technology Innovation Challenge Grant. Finally describe briefly what the lesson is about. Remember, the audience for this document is other teachers, not students. Mention it uses the WebQuest format and include thanks and a link to the WebQuest site . Put the TeacherTECH credit at the bottom of the page.

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(If you are doing a web quest for YOUR class, start here

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Student Examples of Projects

 Probability  The Beauty of Fibonacci