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Teaching with Webquests. September 20 th Early dismissal Kevin Jamieson. Who the heck am I?. I currently teach: Biology I Foundations of Biology. Why should you be taking advice from a newbie?. I have many things to learn, but I have unique perspectives
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Teaching with Webquests September 20th Early dismissal Kevin Jamieson
Who the heck am I? • I currently teach: • Biology I • Foundations of Biology
Why should you be taking advice from a newbie? • I have many things to learn, but I have unique perspectives • I enjoy using technology to facilitate student learning
What is a web-quest? • A web-quest is supposed to involve setting up a website, giving the students a URL and letting them rip • Students are usually expected to answer questions from several websites linked to the site
Webquests are valuable • Students enjoy doing them • Students will do more work on computers than with more conventional methods • Students tend to read more when material is web-based
If you’re still not convinced... • Very high percentage of completion • Computer literacy is an essential part of day to day life in professional America, and many of our students don’t have computers
But, computers are the devil! • True, computers are fallible, and a handout will never crash on a student halfway through an interactive website that had a mile-long URL...
However, there are few things that I can do that make my students jump out of their seats like giving them a web-quest.
Backup plan • Always have a go-to plan. • Worksheets or bookwork are good ideas. • Useful in case the websites take less time to get through than you expected
Webquest design • Tips: • Single page, double-sided • Limit them to ~ 3 websites • There are exceptions to the rule
How many days of computer use should I sign up for ? • One day for experienced users • In this way, I do not feel like I am tying up the ERC too much, but I am taking full advantage of webquests
What about students that need more time? • If a student runs out of time, consider writing them a pass to get them out of a study hall or a lunch period • Remember, as your students get used to the pacing of the work, they will learn the proper pace for a webquest
But why can’t I just print the material off of the ‘net? • If you’re JUST using sites that are mainly text, you do not need to do a web-quest • Seek out at least one or two sites that have some level of student interactivity
Examples • Rock cycle/Erosion webquest • http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc/content/investigations/es0602/es0602page02.cfm • Cell Biology Web-quest • http://www.sumanasinc.com/webcontent/anisamples/nonmajorsbiology/organelles.html
More good sites Emerging scientific issues web-quest http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/coming/