WebQuest

The Quest to Make the Perfect Web....Quest

Description of a WebQuest:

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So What Did We Use to Make It?

Zunal, the WebQuest Machine

What Kind of WebQuest Is It?

Simply put, an awesome one.

More to the point, though, my WebQuest focuses on Scaling and Money Management. Students have to "earn" money, which they will then spend on furniture to fill up their "brand new room" with whatever furniture they would like. Finally, after figuring out and making sure they did not break their budget, they have to fit all the furniture inside their room, scaled down to fit on 1/2-inch graph paper.

Where's My WebQuest?!

Oh, here it is!

Determination of Topic, Relevance, and Task:  In order to choose the topic (as well as what its relevance is), I thought about concepts that could be fairly cross-grade level. I also tried to incorporate themes and ideas that I know all three grades at my school do, so it would be accessable to my fellow staff members. I also, guiltily, wanted to come up with something that I would/do find fun myself, and thus, from these ideas, the concept of making a room was born! I also received some conceptualization from the fact that my girlfriend watches a whole bunch of those home-improvement and decorating shows on TV.

As for the task, I wanted to do something that was very hands-on and incorporated another area of education, in this case, some finance and art. I enjoy finding whatever ways I am able to link different vocations of school-life. Also, I decided to have students "earn" their own money in the first place in hopes that they would take more ownership of the task and product if they had to begin by being invested in doing their best.

Reflection  Well, I have to admit this was probably the most difficult task to do well, but also the second-most fun task at the same time. Developing something that I can use for years down the line, with [hopefully] very few revisions and checks is a wonderful asset to developing my own practicum and helping develop department-wide activities and tasks. Also, while it was a little bit of work, I enjoyed the process of going through and finding all the little bits, putting it together, and getting to go through how all my work came together.

I believe the other really great part about it is that zunal.com is a very user-friendly site that does a great job leading a WebQuest creator through the steps to develop something functional. It helps the user through each page, giving tips and guidance if you get stuck. Assuming the community is a good one, the reviews and easy-access to other WebQuests makes the use of this tool extremely beneficial.