Getting Started on an April Evening

Art for Sale presents a challenge for students to research and add three pieces of art work to a collection. How will they integrate Pacific Northwestern art into a collection that has been fairly traditional in its taste? How does this WQ incorporate conceptual thinking, differing viewpoints and synthesizing ideas...as well as scaffolding the learning. Take a look and see what you think. Is this an appropriate activity for 3rd through 5th graders?

Non native species are invading everywhere. It's a problem in many parts of the world. What student doesn't love to study Hawaii. In this WQ students are examining this invasion in the context of the tropical paradise of Hawaii's ecosystems. In this WQ, I'm interested to see what you think of the resources they've selected and if you think they match the task. What do you think of the scaffolding? Is the task and evaluation well matched? Will middle school students be able to complete this task in the alloted time and able to synthesize the material into new thinking with what they are given?

Now take a moment to think about how what you've seen in these WQs should/can influence what you're doing with you're own WQ designs. It can be positive and negative. Add a comment below.

Comments

[Jill lutz]

Wow! This really has detailed work involved. I question whether the knowldge and skills gained from this WQ would be lasting learning. It doesn't seem to be concept based. It would take incredible amounts of time to complete some of the research items to complete the spreadsheet items. I think it is too much info and too much work.

[Becky]

The Art webquest was really exciting to read. YOu could almost visualize what the students would be doing. The difficulty level seemed very high for 3rd and 4th but 5th could probably do OK with help. I question the duration of two weeks. They must be taking a lot of class time each day.

[diane]

The art project is interesting; however, many of the links did not work. I found this frustrating.

[Marsha]

I had never heard of a feral pig. The blending of the 3 perspectives would challenge thinking and the guiding questions would scaffold student thinking.
I don't know, though, if the research resources are so broad that students won't be frustrated in finding supporting evidence.

[Jill Lutz]

I really liked the setup of this WQ. It inspired passion and was relevant to the real world. Concepted based!!! I thought that the choice of final project could have been better. Just a poster seemed a little dull compared to the exciting research and ideas that they had covered.

[diane]

This is a topic near and dear to my heart...non-native species; however, I was not wowed by this site. I thought it was unclear at times. For example why a student rubric and a teacher rubric?

[Cheryl]

I found both webquests interesting from the start - The art quest seems well-planned - very detailed. I think students would know exactly where they were headed and how to get there. The 2nd quest seems interesting, but not as well thought out.