More WEbQuest fun!!!!

Last week, Carolyn and I met up for a morning of WebQuest fun.  We came up with what we hope is a good "catch" to our WebQuest.  Students will be pretending they are a family from North Dakota, and their parents are geologists.  Their next area of study is on Earthquakes and will be visiting California to study earthquakes.  


Carolyn and I each created a free trial with Quest Garden to develop our WebQuest, and have figured out how to add each other to a webquest so that we can both work on it at the same time.  


Our Tasks page needs a lot of cleaning up, but we have our tasks laid out.  Each group will have to do: definitions, Current Event, KWL, Ask an Expert, and A Challenge Question.  Each group will be assigned a different area to study so that each group can become Masters in one area and share the information with the rest of the class.  The groups students will be given are:  Preparedness, Epicenter, Plotting Earthquakes in last week, Pangaea, Fault Lines, Causes, Positive Effects, and Plate Tectonics.  We will create the terms for the students to define, and give the students a link to USGS terms page.  The students will be given one video from either United Streaming, You tube or Teacher tube to view, and one link to explore (most likely a USGS link) as well as the link to earthquakes terms and a "ask an expert" link to ask a geologist a question relevant to the topic they are researching.  The students will complete the challenge questions last because we want them to apply what they have learned from their research to choose a question and answer the question with a hypothesis and rationale for their answer.  


Challenge questions are:
-  how did Catalina become an island
- theorize what would happen if there was a large Earthquake and your family did not have the supplies
- theorize what life would be like on Pangaea currently
- how would you explain earthquakes to someone who did not have the knowledge or scientific background
-based on your knowledge of other planets and plate tectonics, discuss which of the other planets show evidence of plate tectonics; is this evidence on all 8 planets or just particular planets and why.

Carolyn and I still have to discuss what the students should present when sharing the information with the class. I have suggested having the groups each make a scientific journal like from Indiana Jones. The students will each have a different job, Writer, Reporter, Illustrator, and depending on the group Historian or Safety Engineer.

Carolyn and I will be meeting again on Friday with the hopes of completing our WebQuest. Fingers crossed. We want to be able to share our WebQuest with friends, family and other teachers for some constructive feedback before submitting it to the Assignment Drop box.

I REALLY hope we are on the right track. =)