Our school has been contacted by a top toy making company (cannot be named for security reasons) and they are interested in making action figures of famous European explorers. They heard that fourth graders in our school were researching the Europeans they were interested in turning into action figures. Unfortunately all of their research and development employees are busy on other projects, but our principal said that you were up to the task. They have given us a list of information we need to find in order to make the most accurate toy possible.
Are you up to the task? If yes, continue on through this webquest.
As the introduction stated, your task is to research a European explorer and gather information for the unnamed toy making company. You are given a task that is two-fold. The first task is to find reliable and accurate resources and the second is to gather the information about the explorers. Below are the focus questions:
Now how are you going to accomplish all of this? You are going to visit the resources listed under the Resources tab. While accessing these websites you are going to evaluate them for their reliability. You are going to do this by using the Website Evaluation worksheet. Once you have evaluated the websites for their accuracy and reliability using the evaluation method outlined by Susan E. Beck found here. Once you have found the best websites, use the information presented to answer the questions on the Explorer Information worksheet. Once you have collected all of the information you need, you are going to write an entertaining and informative paragraph about your assigned explorer.
Your teacher will assign you one of the following explorers to research:
Please visit each of the following websites and evaluate them. Once you have done that gather the information you need for your explorer.
You will need these documents to evaluate the websites and gather your information:
You will be evaluated on your website evaluations and your written paragraph.
Rubric for Website Evaluation
| Outstanding | Satisfactory | Needs Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| You evaluated 5 websites using Susan E. Beck's evaluation method | You evaluated 3-4 websites using Susan E. Beck's evaluation method | You evaluated 2 or less websites using Susan E. Beck's evaluation method |
| You completed the Website Evaluation worksheet with outstanding quality and detail. | You completed the Website Evaluation worksheet with satisfactory quality and detail. | You completed the Website Evaluation worksheet with unsatisfactory quality and detail. |
Rubric for Explorer Paragraph
| Outstanding | Satisfactory | Needs Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| Your paragraph is entertaining and informatively written. Your writing is above and beyond what was required of you and shows that you knew how to evaluate information presented on the Internet. | Your paragraph is somewhat entertaining and informatively written. Your writing meets what was required of you and you show some understanding of how to evaluate information presented on the Internet. | Your paragraph is poorly written. Your writing does not meet what was required of you and/or you do not show understanding of how to evaluate information presented on the Internet. |
| Your writing uses correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and usage with no mistakes. | Your writing uses correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and usage with few mistakes. | Your writing uses correct capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and usage with many mistakes. |
This webquest is designed for intermediate level elementary school students. It’s main focus is to evaluate the list of websites for their authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency, and coverage. However there is a second important piece which has the students research famous European explorers.
Curriculum:
The Howard County Public School System objectives being met are:
The MVSC objectives are:
I have created two worksheets for the students to use while researching their explorers. You can either have the students fill these out in word or print them out and have the students fill them out using paper and pencil. There are links to these worksheets under the resources section of this webquest, but for your ease I have also included them here:
Here is a link to my actual lesson plan for you to view as well.