Baltimore WebQuest

Visiting Baltimore

A WebQuest for 3^rd Graders

By Erica R. Plappert for SLM 521

Graphic from Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association

Introduction • Task • Process • Information Sources • Evaluation

Conclusion • Teacher Resources

Introduction:

Put on your travel agent hats! In class, we have been learning

about our city -- Baltimore, Maryland. Today, you will show off your

knowledge by teaching others about Baltimore. Using the Internet,

you will find information about Baltimore’s past and present. You will

also discover fun places to visit in Baltimore.

Task:

In your groups, you will use the information that you found to create

a poster about Baltimore. These posters will be displayed around the

school to teach other students about our city. Next, you will create a brochure to send to people that live far away. The brochure should tell all about Baltimore and make people want to visit. Last, you will plan a trip for a family that has decided to take a trip to Baltimore.

Process:

READ THESE PROCEDURES CAREFULLY BEFORE BEGINNING!

« I will assign roles to each member of your group. When I tell

you what your role is, look in the table below to see what your job is. Do

not worry if you do not get assigned the role that you wanted. I will be

switching roles throughout the activity.

ROLE	Computer Operator	Note Taker	Manager
JOB	You are in charge of handling the mouse and keyboard. You should be seated directly in front of the monitor and no one else should touch the computer equipment.	You are in charge of taking notes about all of the important information that your group finds. Write neatly, but you do not need to write in complete sentences.	You have the important job of keeping your group on task. Make sure that your group is not wasting time or looking at things on the Internet that they should not be.

«Read all numbered steps below before you begin. You will want to

keep the information about the Jones family in mind as you research the

attractions.

«Use your time wisely. Some websites are better than others and it is

your job to figure out which websites are most useful to you. You will not

have time to visit every website listed, so do not spend a lot of time on a

bad website.

«Good luck and have fun!

1. The first thing you will do is research the current facts and history of

Baltimore. Visit websites about Baltimore Facts and History. Take notes

about important facts that you want to remember to help you create

your poster and brochure.

2. Next, visit websites about Baltimore Attractions. Keep a list of

interesting places to visit and things to do in Baltimore. Find attractions

for people of different ages and with different interests. Use the

Baltimore Attractions List to organize your information.

3. Using poster paper, pencils, crayons and/or markers, create a poster

for your schoolmates about Baltimore. Be sure to include interesting

facts and drawings. The poster should be full of information, be easy to

read and be nice to look at.

4. Once you are done your poster, you will get white drawing paper

and design a travel brochure about Baltimore. Make sure that you

show Baltimore as exciting, fun, and interesting. This should be an

advertisement to encourage people to visit Baltimore. Use interesting

facts, attractions, and drawings to make people excited about visiting

Baltimore. You don’t have much room, so include only the best

information.

5. Success! The Jones family has seen your brochure and has decided

to plan a trip to Baltimore. They will be staying for three days and need

you to plan things for them to do. Information about the Jones family is

listed in the table below. Use their interests to plan places for them to

visit. The list of attractions that you wrote should help you. The Jones

family will have time to visit 3 places each day. Make sure that they all

get to do something that they will enjoy. See this sample itinerary for an

example of what to do. It was created for a family that loves art.

FAMILY MEMBER

JIM

(DAD)

JANE (MOM)

JACK

JILL

JOEY

AGE

INTERESTS

Sports

Gardening

Trains

Science

Golf

Shopping

Video Games

Movies

Food

History

Reading

Animals

Toys

Cars

Bugs

Information Sources:

You can use any of these websites to gather your information, but you

do not need to use them all.

Baltimore Facts and History

«Baltimore History – http://www.baltconvstr.com/pages/press_history.htm

«Baltimore Maryland Resource Guide –

http://www.usacitiesonline.com/mdcountybaltimore.htm

«Fact Monster – http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0108485.html

Baltimore Attractions

«Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association (once you get

there, click on Attractions on the left side of the page, then click on

Attractions again on the next page) – http://www.baltimore.org

«Baltimore Virtual Tour – http://www.markpoint.com/balmer.htm

«MD Kids’ Page (click on Places to Visit, then Baltimore City) –

http://www.mdkidspage.org/

«Visiting Baltimore – http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/visitor

Evaluation:

Click HERE for a kid-friendly rubric.

Visiting Baltimore WebQuest Rubric

Teacher name: Mrs. Plappert

Student Name ___________________

CATEGORY	Outstanding	Good	Satisfactory	Needs Improvement
Internet Use	Successfully used suggested internet links to find information and navigated within these sites easily without assistance.	Usually able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigated within these sites easily without assistance.	Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigated within these sites easily without assistance.	Needed assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites.
Poster	Poster is neat, informative and visually appealing.	Poster is fairly neat, informative and visually appealing.	Poster is somewhat neat, informative and visually appealing.	Poster is not neat or informative.
Brochure	Brochure is neat, organized, and contains many interesting facts.	Brochure is fairly neat and organized and contains some interesting facts.	Brochure is somewhat neat and organized and contains a few interesting facts.	Brochure is not neat or organized and does not contain interesting facts.
Itinerary	Itinerary clearly reflects interests of the Jones family. Three attractions are recommended for all three days and all family members' interests are addressed. Itinerary is neat and organized.	Itinerary reflects interests of the Jones family. Three attractions are recommended for all three days and almost every family member’s interests are addressed. Itinerary is fairly neat and organized.	Itinerary somewhat reflects the interests of the Jones family. 2 or 3 attractions are recommended for all three days and some family members' interests are addressed. Itinerary is somewhat neat and organized.	Itinerary does not reflect interests of the Jones family. 0-1 attractions are recommended for all three days and family members' interests are not addressed. Itinerary is not neat or organized.
Notes	Notes are recorded and organized in an extremely neat and orderly fashion.	Notes are recorded legibly and are somewhat organized.	Notes are recorded.	Notes are recorded only with peer/teacher assistance and reminders.
Graphic Organizer	Graphic organizer has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between all topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between most topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer has been started and includes some topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer has not been attempted.
Overall Activity	All tasks are completed as directed.	All tasks are completed pretty much as directed.	All tasks are completed somewhat as directed.	One or more tasks were not completed.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Group Participation	Students worked well together on all tasks with much cooperation without being spoken to.	Students worked fairly well together on all tasks and cooperated without being spoken to.	Students worked alright together on most tasks without being spoken to.	Students did not work well together and had to be spoken to repeatedly.

Conclusion:

Congratulations! You have become an expert on the city of Baltimore! I

hope that you have enjoyed learning even more about our wonderful

city. Perhaps, you will use the knowledge that you have gained to help

your own family plan activities in the future.

Teacher Resources:

This WebQuest was designed to allow my students to

technologically research their local city. It has been created to

accompany the current social studies unit on Baltimore. The goal of this

activity is to get the students excited about the city they live near and

to learn more about it’s history and attractions.

The activity was planned with third graders in mind as I am currently doing my practicum with third graders in Reisterstown, Maryland. This activity could easily be adapted for other elementary grades. Though based in social studies, this activity also contains components of art, reading, writing, and technology.

In completing this activity, the students will need to be able to organize information logically. They will also need to be able to pick out important information in texts. In addition, they will have to make inferences using provided information and research about various attractions in order to select attractions that the Jones family may like. By allowing students to work in groups, they are able to learn from one another and communicate about the tasks at hand.

This lesson may require several days to complete. One or two computer lab periods should suffice along with one or two in-class periods to complete the poster, brochure, and itinerary activities. Materials required include access to the computer lab, poster paper, drawing paper, and writing paper.

http://www.wendysbackgrounds.com