WebQuests

WebQuest Breakdown

Introduction

• What is it? Short paragraph to explain the quest your students will embark on. Often you can describe an event or case study where a general problem needs to be solved. You may end the introduction with a question that can guide the students on their quest.
• Objectives:
  • What will be learned? – Hook the students and give them a general idea of the quest. Set up the scene, engage the learner.
  • Why should we students learn this? Refer to the importance of the task and reasons why.
• Example: (http://zunal.com/introduction.php?w=161508) Your teachers sister is a professional bodybuilder and trainer at a local gym in Salisbury, NC. She promotes Cardiovascular health, and muscle building to every client she comes in touch with because of her love for exercise and health. Being well known all over the county she can only see so many clients daily. Your teacher noticed his sister was being run down by working late hours and her training ability began to slip in performance and clients were not meeting their goals in the weightroom. Can you help take a couple clients off her hands?

Task

• What is it? Describe the objectives, what should the learner accomplish? Written in second person. This does not include the specific steps to solving the problem. Discuss the end goal.
• Task should be:
  • Short
  • Clear
  • Thoughtful and aim at higher order thinking
  • Realistic
  • Specific
  • Developmentally appropriate
  • Aim to address the diverse needs of the students
• Example: (http://zunal.com/tasks.php?w=161508 ) Your teacher has decided to make each and everyone in the class healthy by weightlifting. He wants you to learn about the different ways weight training helps the body so they can turn around and help his sister train her clients. There will be 4 to a group, a Doctor , Trainer, Nutritionist, and BodyBuilder. Gather information and present the class with a workout video.

Process

• What is it? A step-by step guide on how the students will solve the quest. Almost like a lesson plan. This section will spell out every detail on what students need to do. Depending upon the teacher style you will use this section may look different. Also, depending upon the learners experience with WebQuests, your instructions may be different. The first time you create one you should spell out everything in a step-by-step matter. Using headings and different phases works well!
• Phases:
  • Gathering the information: depending upon how many students work in each group, their experience with WebQuests, and how well students can work together, you assign students with specific roles. Each role will have live links or questions that will guide them to find the information they need.
  • Examining the information: Once they find the information they need to examine it, analyze it and make decisions on how they will use the information to solve the problem.
  • Reflect and create: This is where the students produce the result of their research and thinking within something concrete like a paper, video, debate, model, etc. Here you provide them with the tools they need to cerate the final product.
• Word Template: For each role you create a table that shows the step-by-step process, questions or tasks with active links.
  • Phase 1:

• Phase 2:
• Phase 3:
• Example: (http://zunal.com/process.php?w=161508)
  • Phase 1: Decide on the role you will play. We will have four main roles: a doctor, a nutritionist, a trainer and a bodybuilder. Each student will have a variety of tasks but everyone eventually must work together to create the final product. Decide together who will do which role and complete your research in phase 1. (Due Date)

• Phase 2:
  • The trainer will work with the doctor to choose 2 exercises from each muscle.
  • The Bodybuilder will work with the nutritionist and the trainer to develop an outline of your workout and nutrition plan
  • The Bodybuilder and the trainer will create a video of a workout session.
  • The trainer will explain the exercises and the doctor will explain the muscles that you are working on. The nutritionist will record the video.
• Phase 3:
  • Gather all the information you have and create a PowerPoint presentation with the video on the last slide.
  • Each student must include his or her own work and each student must take an equal part in the presentation. In class you will provide a short 10-minute presentation.

Sources

• You could have an additional section for relevant sources if you need to.
• Most often the sources are embedded right into the task.

Evaluation

• What is it? An evaluation page describing how the work of students will be assessed. Outline the evaluation criteria and the content standards. Describe how the students will be assessed. Show the grading scale you will use.
• You can add a rubric, quiz, evaluation report, pre and post assessments, or other assessment tools. Each tool must be clearly explained
• Example Rubric (http://zunal.com/evaluation.php?w=161508)
  • Evaluation: Each person will be graded individually for your section. Points will be added up at the end for each person and will result in a total for the group.
  • Evaluation Rubric:

Guidelines

• This page is optional as this information can be added to the “Process”.
• Guidelines discuss how to organize the required information into the final product. Depending on the final product you may wish to have a separate page for it. Sometimes it is useful to have it separate if you want your students to complete the first two phases first and thoroughly before beginning the final project.

Conclusion

• Two purposes:

1. It brings closure to the WebQuest. The students can reflect back upon their work and what they have learned in the process.

2. To look ahead and create connections to how what they learned can help them further in their life. It can also be a place to add more resources if students wish to learn more about the topic. The focus is on life-long learning.

• This section can be short or long, it depends on the teacher and the connections you can make.
• Example: (http://zunal.com/conclusion.php?w=161508) After completing this WebQuest, you should be able to demonstrate proper technique in the gym setting as well as help your peers achieve their goals. Your teacher would also like to thank you for taking some clients off his sister’s hands. She is back to full strength and can help out in the community.

Teacher Page

• What is it? This is where you describe the WebQuest so other teachers can use it. Hook your fellow teachers into using the WebQuest or into creating their own. This section can include curriculum information, objectives, standards, connections to common core, interdisciplinary aspects, additional resources, credits for the resources used within the WebQuest.
• Example: (http://zunal.com/teacherspage.php?w=161508)

WebQuest Sources

• Teacher Development Guidelines Page (Share with permission from Derrick Mears)
• Webquest.org – Website with more information on WebQuest
• TeacherWeb – many examples of WebQuests created by and for teachers.