WebQuests

While researching Webquests, I came across a WebQuest about zoo animals. I was intrigued because I plan to do complete my WebQuest for this class on that very subject. This web-based PBL was created by a teacher in Texas who wrote the PBL for students in 3-5 grades. She starts the lesson with a quick intro to get the students interested.

The lesson
The gist of her intro is that the Texas zoo has to many animals and the students have been given the job of starting a new zoo for their town. The students have apparently been broken into groups and each group member has a job to do. One member is a zoologists who have to determine what each animal needs to be properly cared for. Another group member is the budeget manager who have to determine the costs for taking care of each animal and they have to research which animals costs the most to take care of & also they have to come up with ways to make money at the zoo. Another group memebr is responible for researaching natural habitats and habitats used at zoos around the country. Making sure that each animal is comfortable and feels at home. The last group member is the architect, who must construct the habitats and design the layout of the zoo.
Site design:
The website is setup very well and has large pictures to match every link they need. The teacher has pre=selected the animals and has a link to get to that list of animals. Each group has to read the history of zoos to give background knowledge.
Under Process the teacher tells each member what to do from begininng to end. Each memebr has their own page and a list of questions to answer. When each group member is done they meet as a group and actually construct their new zoo together. End the end they all present and try to persuade the class to choose their layout.
Assessment:
The teacher has a very kid friendly rubric and also a list of reflective questions for students to answer at the very end of the process. The teacher also has listed the state standards that she is attempting to meet aon the teacher's page. The teacher's page also has a list of every web resource she used to make the WebQuest successful.
My thoughts:
I thought the lesson was appropriate and well written. It was easy for me to follow and seemed easy for students to follow. The questions she had the students answered were evenly spread between open-ended and closed. She used lots of images and charts for students to collect data. Even though the students worked in groups for the end-product most of the research was done individually. This makes me wonder about students who may have difficulty reading the materials. Overall I think this an excellent WebQuest and I will definitely use some of the resources to help complete my WebQuest for this course.