Scavenger Hunt or WebQuest
Treasure hunts add motivation for all of us learning to search and conduct research on the Web...
Links
ftp://ftp.cni.org/pub/net-guides/internet.hunt
Treasure hunts add motivation for all of us learning to search and conduct research on the Web. You will see postings of other hunts, too, such as cic.net and cni.org and cyberjacques.The Internet Scavenger Hunt!! is one of the oldest but still one of the best.
AgNews is a treasure hunt to celebrate National Agriculture Day-- a good example of this skill translated into regional practice.
At the University of Colorado's Center for Lifelong Learning (Campus Box 430, Boulder, 80309) WebQuest's system is designed for students to author their own multimedia, research hunts and engage in online dialogue about criteria for constraining inquiry with the world's Web at their disposal. Unlike canned simulations students create their own objects and searches.
The Software Publishers Association is sponsoring school team competitions-CyberSurfari style. Good prizes are available and the site itself is appealing.
The bulk of Headbone is a commercial catalog of computer products. In the Netscapade space, however, are some great "hunts" for teams within your classroom, especially for students in grades 4-8.Cosmo leads 8 different and clever hunts. Shockwave is necessary for some of the activities. Headbone's site provides more interactive activities such as a chat room and leaving a trail of secret messages. Now, Headbone and Excite, the search service, have joined to bring you a scavenger hunt in the specific domain of environmental studies.
Science/clone (then click on dolly.htm)is a guided quest in which students take on roles for testifying to a Congressional sub-committee attempting to determine if the cloning of Dolly is a scientific breakthrough to benefit humanity or a scourge to be contained. Some links to resources and virtual "dossiers" are presented to help students begin. For instance, students may represent the insitute who performed the cloning or the USDA or Friends of Animals or biomedical ethicists or a pharmaceutical company. This simulation is underpinned by a serious goal rather than just a scavenger hunt for miscellaneous information. Hint: Some resources in this media center could help with this quest, too.
TeacherTidbytes has developed another variant of a webquest--searches that illustrate how the Web can be integrated routinely into all school curricula.
EdWeb at San Diego State University has updated its WebQuest site to include tutorials for teachers and students. Probably the best starter. WebQuest Introduction is another great resource.
Bonnie Mohnsen specializes in integrating technology into physical education. The Personal Firness Trainer Webquest gives students a fictional person for whom they must design a weekly health, fitness and nutrition program.
For a taxonomy of WebQuests review Bernie Dodge's work.
Annotation
Before hurtling fully into a treasure hunt learn to use some of the search tools. Many university students rely on the Web for research projects so it is important that younger students begin to acquire this 21st century skill.
