USF's WebQuest 

Title: European Excursion

Author:  Naomi Oliver              

Date: April 2005

Teacher's Page

Dear Colleague,

This unit is designed to introduce students to European History, through an interactive format that will allow them to research, synthesize, and then teach the rest of the class about a particular part of Europe. In this unit, students will pretend that they are part of the Social Studies Department of a middle school that is deciding where to plan an educational trip for a group of students. This educational trip would take place in Europe, and there are specific countries that the department is considering for their trip. In order to tackle this task, different faculty members have been assigned different countries to research and then present to the rest of the department. The class will be divided into different groups, and each group will be assigned a country to research. As an introduction to the unit, a short PowerPoint presentation will be given by the instructor and students will gain a better understanding of the location of countries in this region through a map activity where they will draw the current boundaries of European Nations. Finally, students will work in groups to complete a WebQuest on this topic.

Unit Summary:
    Goals/Objectives:

1. Students will gain an understanding of European History and explain how it has impacted American History.

2. Students will be able to spatially locate and describe countries in Europe.

     NCSS Theme:

I. Culture

II. Time, Continuity and Change

III. People, Places and Environments

IX. Global Connections

    Days:

9 days (65 minute blocks)

    Content:

European History and Geography

    Methods:

Attention Grabber, Prior Knowledge Writing Activity, Drawing a Map, Completing a WebQuest, Group Work, Completing a PowerPoint.

WebQuest  Summary:
    Goals/Objectives:

Through research in groups of three or four students, students will gain an understanding of European history, culture and geography.

    Days:

6.5

    Content:

European History and Geography

    Methods:  

Group work, internet research and creating a PowerPoint that each group will present to the rest of the class.        

Teacher Resources

Unit Information: 

Background Resources

Teacher Resources

Teaching about Western Europe http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-9217/europe.htm

Primary Documents http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/homepage.html

Teaching about Europe http://www.geography.org.uk/gtip/gtip_4d.asp

Critical Issue: Using Technology to Enhance Engaged Learning for At-Risk Students http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at400.htm

Challenges and Strategies in Using Technology to Promote Education Reform http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/EdTech/approaches.html

University of Washington Libraries European History http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/tm/europe.html

Academic Info ñ European History http://www.academicinfo.net/histeuro.html

Educational Trips Abroad http://www.edinformatics.com/travel/teacher_travel.htm

Teacher Tools

CIA World Fact Book http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

FactMonster.Com Country Information http://www.factmonster.com/countries.html

Country Reports http://www.emulateme.com/

Info Please Countries of the World http://www.infoplease.com/countries.html

U.S. Department of State Country Background Notes http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/

Europe Unlimited http://www.visiteurope.com/

Other Resources

Introduction PowerPoint

U.S. and European Pre-Writing Activity

Drawing a Map of Europe

European Excursion WebQuest

Pre-Training Student PowerPoint Tutorial Directions

PowerPoint Group Project Directions

Unit Lesson Sequence
 

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Day 1    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Attention Grabber	Show a short ten to fifteen minute PowerPoint with pictures from different countries in Europe.	Introduction PowerPoint
Prior Knowledge Writing Activity	Students will write a paragraph that describes the culture of the United States. Then, they will write at least one paragraph that describes their idea of the culture that exists in Europe.	U.S. and European Pre-Writing Activity
Discussion (Pair/Share)	Students will then pair and share the ideas from the writing exercise.

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Day 2    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Draw Map	Students will draw a map of Europe using the map in their text book as reference. Students must draw the items listed on an overhead.	Drawing a Map of Europe

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Day 3    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Finish Map if Necessary	See notes from Day 2
Introduce WebQuest Group Project	Introduce the WebQuest Group Project. Show the students the WebQuest using a projector. Answer any questions and assign members of the groups that will work together.	European Excursion WebQuest

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Day 4    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Internet WebQuest Research	Students will utilize laptops in the classroom to complete the internet research that they need to do for their European Excursion WebQuest project.	European Excursion WebQuest

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Day 5    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Internet WebQuest Research	Students will utilize laptops in the classroom to complete the internet research that they need to do for their European Excursion WebQuest project.	European Excursion WebQuest

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Day 6    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Internet WebQuest Research	Students will utilize laptops in the classroom to complete the internet research that they need to do for their European Excursion WebQuest project.
Start Constructing PowerPoint Presentation	Students in each group will begin to construct the PowerPoint Presentation that they will use to demonstrate the results of their research for the rest of the class. If students are not familiar with PowerPoint software, then it will be necessary to utilize the Training document, and then allow them to construct the PowerPoint for their group project.	PowerPoint Training Directions European Excursion PowerPoint Directions

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Day 7    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Assembling PowerPoint Presentation	Students in each group will begin to construct the PowerPoint Presentation that they will use to demonstrate the results of their research for the rest of the class.

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Day 8    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Assembling PowerPoint Presentation	Students in each group will begin to construct the PowerPoint Presentation that they will use to demonstrate the results of their research for the rest of the class.

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Day 9    Back to Top
Lesson Plan Outline

Method (Attention Getter, Lecture, Callout Group, etc)	Content/Key Ideas/Concepts/Facts	Materials (Transparencies, audio, handouts, etc)
Group Presentations	Each group will present the results of their research to the rest of the class.
Voting	Each student will then vote, just as the faculty of the Social Studies Department would have, on which country they think would be most educational for a school trip. They will write their choice on a paper, and all the ballots will be counted.

Conclusion:

Through this effort, students will gain a better understanding of European History. Additionally, they will expand their own grasp of how European History and American History are intertwined. Students will improve their team work skills, and learn through their work with each other. At the end of this assignment, many of the students will have increased their technology skills. This particular format and use of technology will enhance the students' critical thinking skills while concomitantly increasing their interest in the material.

Credits/References:

Please see the above listed websites. I would also like to thank Mr. Ian Call for his guidance in putting together this Unit Plan and WebQuest.

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