Week 6 blog.

When searching for webquests on the internet, I found there were many that were strictly used in an individual classroom and less for a blanket science classroom. I found some where documents needed passwords to enter, some that were incomplete, some that just required the students to perform a single task with no higher-level thinking and still others that required the student to perform no summative or formative assessment - more about fun. Although I am a proponent on "fun learning", I am also an educator that requires the students to show me what they have learned by performing a particular activity. Without this type of assessment, it is almost impossible to determine the level at which the students learn. With this in mind, I have created a Web-quest that allows the students to have fun while still learning and requires the students to complete formative and summative assessments along the way.

There was a webquest I found contained most of the requirements I would find necessary in my classroom. This website can be found at http://www.questgarden.com/86/07/1/100228175329/index.htm. When looking for different webquests in relation to the topics I am currently teaching, I wanted a webquest that looked at a single topic without being too broad or too narrow in learning. This webquest has tabs at the left that lesson any type of confusion the students may have. In this task area, I like that the author has broke everything down into tasks and contain assessments for learning. In each task, the students are required to perform a particular assignment - some of the assignments outside the classroom. Only Task One and Task two requires the students to use the internet for learning. In the other tasks, the students only need the internet for reference. 

There are problems with the webquest that I find need help. The first is that when clicking on the particular link for each law, the author doesn't have it set up to open a new tab or window. Instead, the students lose the window in which they are working and must go back to the webquest to continue their assignment. Although this is an overall study of Newton's three laws, it may have been better if each task represented a particular task and then a final task that covered all three. This may have prevented any confusion in learning.