Webquests

Webquests are authentic activities that can be used by students to discover their own knowledge and opinions. They involve an introduction, task process, resources, conclusion, teacher page, and sources cited. The introduction briefly explains what the students will be focusing on during this learning experience. The task describes exactly what the students are expected to do during this assignment. The process breaks the task down into steps that are more manageable for the students to accomplish. The resources provides the websites and videos you want the students to view to gather information. The conclusion ties up the journey and takes the information the students have gathered and applies it in the real world as an extension of the lesson. the teacher page provides the state core and curriculum, teacher and student materials and the background knowledge the students need before being able to do this webquest. The last page cites the sources used in the webquest.
In my class room the webquest we created would be used with a genetics unit in fifth grade. We would use the webquest at the end of the lesson to get the students thinking about the ethical issues that are involved in genetic research.
To get you familiar with webquests, please review the following sites and complete a few webquests
http://www.webquests.org/
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/

Now that you are familiar with webquests, go through the cloning webquest above and complete the research and worksheet. Tomorrow you will be placed in groups for your presentations.