EcoQuest:Desert Edition
Teacher's Guide
Introduction:
"Understanding the Desert" is an interactive internet site known as a WebQuest. This WebQuest was inspired by Dr. Bernie Dodge and the Pacific Bell Faculty Fellows at San Diego State University. This WebQuest was modeled after "Searching for China: A Full WebQuest" which was designed by Tom March. EcoQuest: Desert Edition, was designed for 7th and 8th graders trying to learn more about the desert ecosystem, weather, characteristics, and other interesting aspects. Students look at the characteristics and challenges of the desert through the eyes of certain professions. After they learn about the desert and complete the assignments given to them, they are to design a multimedia presentation describing what they have found and present it back to the class. This project was designed to take about a week to do, and for kids to work in groups of no more that 5. For classes greater than 30 we believe it would be better to assign one role to two groups rather than having more than 5 in a group.
For the multimedia presentation portion of this project we suggest using Hyperstudio or Powerpoint. To complete this assignment, students must be familiar with some sort of multimedia authoring software. Therefore you may wish to add a couple of days to the beginning of this project if your students are not familiar with such software. We also recomend that teachers look through this project before they assign students roles.
Goals:
The goal of this project is ultimately for all students to learn more about some of the challenges of living in the desert. It's anticipated that students will learn about the desert from several aspects and see that heat and water aren't the only two concerns of living in the desert.
Educationally speaking the goal of this project is threefold. We want students to learn how to use sites on the internet to do research. The basic sights given contain all the information students will need in order solve the problems presented to them, however it is hoped that students will want to do their own research and go beyond the selected URL's given to them. Secondly it is a goal that students will process the information on the internet and develop that into something useful to them. It is hoped that students will think for themselves and that work will be original in thought and design. This project was structured so that students couldn't just simply regurgitate information back to the teacher without thinking. Finally it is hoped that students will learn how to design and present a mulitmedia presentation. We know that multimedia technology is new to schools and the classroom, but it will be imperative for our students to know the basics of mulitmedia in order to become productive members of our society. We hope this will be an important and useful step in that development.
Basic Design:
For each role, there is a basic design and assignment for each student. They are to search the suggested internet sites, collect the information needed, answer the Main Point, Knowledge Questions, and the Thought Question presented in each role. This information should be prepared and presented in two ways. One presentation should be written to be turned in to be graded by the teacher. The other presentation should be in multimedia format (preferably using Hyperstudio or Powerpoint) to be presented to and graded by the class. There is worksheet (template) that is attached and intended to be given to each student for use during the presentations. It is designed to facilitate the assimilation of information the other groups will present.
We understand and recognize the right of each teacher who uses this project has to amend and change it as they see fit. We would also welcome any suggestions, examples, or stories of how this is being used in the classroom.
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