Mr. Elliott
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|
|
Mr. Elliott |
|
This WebQuest is an adaptation of an activity found in the Indiana Science Standards Grade 8 Curriculum Framework Guide called Extreme Temperatures. Although I have modified the activity somewhat, the original concept and design is found throughout the WebQuest. Special thanks to the committee of Indiana teachers for creating this excellent curriculum resource. I have incorporated a few of the other instructional activities from the guide into my teaching. A link to the Indiana Academic Standards Resources is below:
Click for Indiana's Academic Standards Resource
In this WebQuest students will explore the discovery of radioactivity and how it influenced our understanding of the age of the Earth.
Subject Matter: I use
this WebQuest as bridge between of my unit on Atoms and a unit on
Earthquakes,
Volcanoes and Plate Tectonics.
Grade Level: All of my 8th grade science classes
participated in this
WebQuest. The kids worked in groups of two.
WebQuest Length: We have 65 minute class periods at our school. I plan on
4
to 6 days for the project. Much of the time spent in the computer
room
is to develop and design the magazine on Microsoft Publisher. Rather than
working on consecutive days I spread the project out over a
2 to 4 week
period.
Many student teams
complete research outside of class time.
The Standard Indicator for this activity comes from Standard 6: Historical Perspectives - 8.6.4. This activity also links to Standards 8.1.1, 8.3.2, 8.6.2 and 8.6.3. Descriptions of these Standards are given below. You will also find a link to the Indiana's Academic Standards.
STANDARDS
| 8.6.4
|
Describe how the discovery of
radioactivity as a source of Earth’s heat energy made it possible to
understand how Earth can be several billion years old and still have a hot
interior.
|
Click for Indiana's Academic Standards
SKILLS
Some of
the additional skills that I hope to develop in this WebQuest
include
the following:
Team Work and Cooperation
Time Management
Internet Research Skills
Writing and Editing
Experience in creating a document in Microsoft
Publisher.
In the past I did not include a list of websites on the main page of this WebQuest for the kids to use. There is no shortage of websites available pertaining to this topic. I wanted the students to conduct their own search without feeling limited to the sites that I suggested. I find that most students know how to access the available Search Engines. They always did a terrific job of finding the information they needed.
Recently I have changed my philosophy on this matter. There are numerous websites that masquerade as science but promote agendas that cannot be defined as scientific. It would be very difficult and time consuming for students to identify inappropriate sources as they search for relevant information. I now provide a list of suitable websites (27 total). I selected these websites from educational and governmental sources that support the scientific nature of the problem.
The kids can find many good pictures on the websites and from Google Image Search. I instruct them on how to download pictures and insert them into their magazines.
The only materials associated with this WebQuest are the Grading Rubric and Grade Sheet. You can access a copy of the Rubric through the main page of this WebQuest. I give the kids a copy of the Rubric at the outset of the activity. Below you will find a copy of the Score Sheet that I use.
Click to view or print a copy of "Older than Dirt" Score Sheet
One of the biggest headaches that I have had when doing activities of this nature is the saving of presentations onto diskettes. Kids would lose their disks, forget to bring them to class and not properly follow the procedure for saving their data. This problem was somewhat alleviated when our school computer gurus arranged for students to save their data to their own student accounts on the server. This was a huge improvement. We still used floppy disks as backups. If you must use disks it would be advisable to keep them in the room so that they are always available when needed.
Here are a few WebQuest Samples. I am very proud of what these kids accomplished. Click on the link below to view or print a sample.
Click for
Acknowledgements
During the 2002 - 2003 school year, a cohort of teachers from our middle school participated in TICKIT (Teacher Institute for Curriculum Knowledge about Integration of Technology) This is a program sponsored by Indiana University School of Education and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation. During this time I learned the tricks to creating WebQuests. Thanks to my instructors Lee Ehman, Curt Bonk and John Keller for their guidance and instruction.
Click to go back to "Older than Dirt" WebQuest
Last updated by Paul Elliott on Thursday March 25, 2010