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WebQuests of either short or long duration are deliberately designed to make the best use of a learner's time. There is questionable educational benefit in having learners surfing the net without a clear task in mind, and most schools must ration student connect time severely. To achieve that efficiency and clarity of purpose, WebQuests should contain at least the following parts:
- An introduction that sets the stage and provides some background information.
- A task that is doable and interesting.
- A set of information sources needed to complete the task. Many (though not necessarily all) of the resources are embedded in the WebQuest document itself as anchors pointing to information on the World Wide Web. Information sources might include web documents, experts available via e-mail or realtime conferencing, searchable databases on the net, and books and other documents physically available in the learner's setting. Because pointers to resources are included, the learner is not left to wander through webspace completely adrift.
- A description of the process the learners should go through in accomplishing the task. The process should be broken out into clearly described steps.
- Some guidance on how to organize the information acquired. This can take the form of guiding questions, or directions to complete organizational frameworks such as timelines, concept maps, or cause-and-effect diagrams as described by Marzano (1988, 1992) and Clarke (1990).
- A conclusion that brings closure to the quest, reminds the learners about what they've learned, and perhaps encourages them to extend the experience into other domains.
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Aerodynamic Adventure |
Activities built around a simulation about plane flight and maths. |
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Designing a Home |
Design a house using plans, considering costs, energy use, etc. |
| Creative Encounter of the Numerical Kind |
After researching place value and numeration systems, students create a base-4 numeration system for a primitive alien tribe. |
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Titanic: What Can Numbers Tell Us? |
Create a spreadsheet and examine statistics about the voyage. |
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Star Wars |
A maths WebQuest on Star Wars figures. |
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Pythagoras |
So many things we use in maths don't seem relevant in our real lives. Do you ever wonder why it will be faster to travel "as the crow flies" instead of walking the original paths? About how tall a ladder should be so that the fireman can save the child from the burning building? All these questions can be solved by using the Pythagorean Theorem. |
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Geometry Meets Poetry |
Take a concept from geometry and portray it as a poem and an animated graphic. |
| The King of Tides |
Analyze real-time data to try to prove a causal relationship between the moon and tides |
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Weekend at Bernie's |
Make a budget for a given (yet strangely familiar) family. |
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Franchise |
Convince your classmates to invest in the franchise business you've selected. |
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