A Webquest is a project that totally lives online that guides students through a process of learning by breaking a large project down into smaller parts. Students can either complete the webquest individually or in a group by each member completing a section. Most teachers utilize a Webquest as a group project to promote communication and collaboration skills amongst the students. The current Webquest model completely breaks the down the learning activity into different sections, allowing students to complete small portions of the webquest at a time and guiding them guiding them through the complete activity.
The traditional Webquest format consists of the following seven parts: Introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion, credits, and a teacher page. These individual sections guide students so that they can work in groups or by themselves. The sections also provide structure which allows students to browse the Internet, use data from various sources to answer questions, and to solve problems that require higher level critical thinking skills. Using webquests in the classroom have been found to enhance collaboration between students, which will increase student motivation, and also create opportunities for students to become experts within a certain area of study.
Webquests can be applied to fit a wide range of topics; however there are some topics that are not appropriate. Educators do not want to use a webquest to teach factual information, such as multiplication tables or chemical symbols on the periodic table. The best use of a webquest is for a topic that isn't clearly defined, a task that sparks creativity among the students and problems that may have multiple possible answers. Webquests are "inquiry" based projects that require students to think outside the box in order to solve a problem. Webquests promote communication and collaborative learning, since students are required to work in groups. These projects help students to practice higher level critical thinking skills that they will have to use for the rest of their life.
During this week I had the opportunity to create my own webquest that I could possibly use in my own classroom. I created a webquest entitled "Cell City"; where students would have to work together in order to create a presentation regarding the specific functions of organelles inside plant and animal cells. Students are required to research the Internet to find the functions of at least eight different cell organelles, then create an analogy of that organelle function to a structure inside their city that has a similar function. The overall objective of the group was to market their city to an audience to persuade them to visit their city.
The biggest challenge that I had putting this webquest together was finding enough resources from which the students could find helpful information to complete their presentation. After browsing the Internet for a while I was able to put a list of websites together that the students would find very helpful in completing the webquest. My webquest was primarily intended to used for high school level science classes, but it could be modified to fit the middle school level as well.
Webquests are great way to incorporate technology immediately into your classroom. They promote collaboration and communication between students in order to solve a problem. The URL for my webquest has been posted below for you to view. Enjoy!
http://questgarden.com/109/66/5/100928075827/
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