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Welcome From the Welcome Centers

A PBL+MM for 5th Grade Social Studies

VS.2b: Locating and describing Virginia’s five geographic regions

VS.10b: Describing the major products and industries of Virginia’s five regions

Designed by Mrs. Casteel

arcastee@henrico.k12.va.us

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QUESTION

How can Virginia raise income from the tourism industry? We have been asked by the Chamber of Commerce to help create an advertisement for Virginia. By showing a multimedia presentation of each of the five regions at all of the Welcome Centers on each of the major interstates, tourists will become familiar with many features of our state.

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PLAN

Our plan is to begin by brainstorming information we know about each of the five regions. This is to include climate, industries, recreation, and any popular tourist attractions located in the specific regions. Using a KWHL chart, we will list previous knowledge either from 4th grade Social Studies, or personal experiences. We will then make a list of things we want to know about each regions, including the procedure for finding out wanted information. During a time set for research, we will gather the needed information from a variety of resources. Then, we will use a format similar to a storyboard to make a layout of the types of information that would best serve the needs of advertising Virginia. Each segment of the storyboard will represent a slide of a Keynote project. The final project will be a presentation using the Keynote program to include graphics, facts, and persuasive writing.

The goal for this project is to develop a Keynote presentation that can be shown at each of the Welcome Centers along the major interstates as tourists enter Virginia. The persuasiveness of the creation will hopefully drum up some additional state revenue from the tourism industry.

The class will be divided into five cooperative groups, one for each region. Students in each group will have the following jobs:

Leader: This person will need to be organized, good with directing others, able to maintain focus and stay on task, and be attentive to the timeline so that their portion is completed completely and on time.

Researchers: Several members of the group will have this task. They will use the following resources to find the needed information on their region.

Technical Support: This should be the most computer savvy person in the group. Although your teacher will direct you through your first Keynote presentation, the Technical Support person will be the one to assist all the members as they work together to create their slides.

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Resources:

*Use the following web sites as a springboard for your research. Understand that you do not have to use these and that with the help of your technical support, you may search your own sites.

The Fall Line

Virginia’s Regions

Virginia Travel

Outdoor Recreation

Williamsburg

History in Virginia

Chamber of Commerce

All About the State

*Use the class set of travel brochures regarding several tourist attractions in Virginia.

*Use information attained from last year’s field trip to Staunton, in the Valley and Ridge Region, and this year’s field trips to Jamestown and Williamsburg.

*Use the books checked out by your teacher from the school library on Virginia and tourism, as well as any books you discover from your local library. The following is a list of resources available in the classroom:

Virginia by Kathleen Thompson

The Virginia Colony by Dennis B. Fradin

Virginia Plantations, a videorecording by Paradise Productions

Williamsburg: Cradle of the Revolution by Ron Goor

All Round Virginia: Regions and Resources by Karla Smith

And You May Find Virginia, a videorecording by Bill Peterson

Uniquely Virginia by Karla Smith

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SCHEDULE

Week #1: Brainstorm items that would be needed in the presentation to persuade someone visiting Virginia to spend their money here. Use travel brochures attained from local travel agencies as resources. Complete the KWHL chart, as a whole class, on the regions. Divide the class into five groups, assign each group a region, and review the assignments and jobs.

Weeks #2-4: Use class time to research information on your regions. Of all the information you gather, decide exactly what you would like to include on your slides. Earlier in the year, the class took a field trip to Williamsburg, and the children have their notes form that trip. During these weeks, the class will take their field trip to Jamestown. The group researching the Coastal Plain Region will check out the school digital camera and will take pictures during the trip to be used on their slides. (For the sake of fairness, the teacher has digital pictures of the other regions. The Technical Support from each group will meet with the teacher to learn how to scan the pictures into the computers and where to store them for future use.)

Week #5: With teacher direction, the groups will place sketches of their pictures and information on a storyboard. This will serve as a rough copy of their part of the presentation.

Weeks #6-7: The Technical Support from each group will meet with the teacher and be trained on Keynote. During class, the children, with the assistance of their Technical Support, will create the slides for their part of the slide show. The slides will have titles, facts, persuasive phrases, and pictures to support their information. When all the groups are completed, the teacher will use the school’s iBeam projector to share each group’s finished project with the entire class. We will work together as a group to decide the order of slides, a title, and a conclusion for the Keynote presentation. During this phase, we will also critique our own work as well as our classmate’s, remembering that the reason for critiquing is for improvement.

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PROJECT

This project is about persuading tourists to stay in Virginia and visit some of the amazing features found here. It compiles math skills (economy), history (the geography of Virginia and historical sites), technology (the Keynote presentation), and creative, persuasive writing skills. The final project will be shown to visitors at the state Welcome Centers.

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ASSESSMENT

It was my desired result that during this project many things would be accomplished. First and foremost, the students have been exposed to working in a team and the importance of carrying his/her own weight to ensure the final project is well done. In addition to this life skill, it was a wonderful way to review 4th and 5th grade social studies curriculum including Virginia’s geography, the five regions, climate, and tourism. Finally, the students learned the importance of mastering the basic skills of today’s technology and how technology enhanced our topic.

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION

The students were able to gather appropriate information from a variety of resources. Together, with the help of the teacher and the Technical Support in each group, the groups were able to complete several slides on their region. The slides contained pictures of the landforms and tourist attractions found there. The persuasive writing was used to label and tempt the visitors. Each group was taught how to add audio to their presentation to improve its appeal.

Following the completion of this project, the students were assessed in two ways. First, a rubric was used to assess the individuals and their performance while working on the project. Next, the group was assessed based on the final project using the following rubric.

Research and Collaborative Work Skills

|CATEGORY |4 |3 |2 |1 |

|Ideas/Research Questions|Researchers independently |Researchers independently |Researchers identify, with |Researchers identify, with considerable |

| |identify at least 4 reasonable, |identify at least 4 |some adult help, at least 4 |adult help, 4 reasonable ideas to pursue |

| |insightful, creative ideas to |reasonable ideas to pursue |reasonable ideas to pursue |when doing the research. |

| |pursue when doing the research. |when doing the research. |when doing the research. | |

|Group Timeline |Group independently develops a |Group independently develops|Group independently develops|Group needs adult help to develop a timeline|

| |reasonable, complete timeline |a timeline describing when |a timeline describing when |AND/OR several students in the group cannot |

| |describing when different parts |most parts of the work will |most parts of the work will |independently describe the high points of |

| |of the work will be done. All |be done. All students in |be done. Most students can |the timeline. |

| |students in group can |group can independently |independently describe the | |

| |independently describe the |describe the points of the |points of the timeline. | |

| |points of the timeline. |timeline. | | |

|Contributions |Routinely provides useful ideas |Usually provides useful |Sometimes provides useful |Rarely provides useful ideas when |

| |when participating in the group |ideas when participating in |ideas when participating in |participating in the group and in classroom |

| |and in classroom discussion. A |the group and in classroom |the group and in classroom |discussion. May refuse to participate. |

| |definite leader who contributes a|discussion. A strong group |discussion. A satisfactory | |

| |lot of effort. |member who tries hard! |group member who does what | |

| | | |is required. | |

|Time-management |Routinely uses time well |Usually uses time well |Tends to procrastinate, but |Rarely gets things done by the deadlines AND|

| |throughout the project to ensure |throughout the project, but |always gets things done by |group has to adjust deadlines or work |

| |things get done on time. Group |may have procrastinated on |the deadlines. Group does |responsibilities because of this person's |

| |does not have to adjust deadlines|one thing. Group does not |not have to adjust deadlines|inadequate time management. |

| |or work responsibilities because |have to adjust deadlines or |or work responsibilities | |

| |of this person's procrastination.|work responsibilities |because of this person's | |

| | |because of this person's |procrastination. | |

| | |procrastination. | | |

|Attitude |Never is publicly critical of the|Rarely is publicly critical |Occasionally is publicly |Often is publicly critical of the project or|

| |project or the work of others. |of the project or the work |critical of the project or |the work of other members of the group. |

| |Always has a positive attitude |of others. Often has a |the work of other members of|Often has a positive attitude about the |

| |about the task(s). |positive attitude about the |the group. Usually has a |task(s). |

| | |task(s). |positive attitude about the | |

| | | |task(s). | |

|Focus on the task |Consistently stays focused on the|Focuses on the task and what|Focuses on the task and what|Rarely focuses on the task and what needs to|

| |task and what needs to be done. |needs to be done most of the|needs to be done some of the|be done. Lets others do the work. |

| |Very self-directed. |time. Other group members |time. Other group members | |

| | |can count on this person. |must sometimes nag, prod, | |

| | | |and remind to keep this | |

| | | |person on-task. | |

|Working with Others |Almost always listens to, shares |Usually listens to, shares, |Often listens to, shares |Rarely listens to, shares with, and supports|

| |with, and supports the efforts of|with, and supports the |with, and supports the |the efforts of others. Often is not a good |

| |others. Tries to keep people |efforts of others. Does not |efforts of others, but |team player. |

| |working well together. |cause "waves" in the group. |sometimes is not a good team| |

| | | |member. | |

Multimedia Project

|CATEGORY |4 |3 |2 |1 |

|Attractiveness |Makes excellent use of font, color, |Makes good use of font, |Makes use of font, color, |Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. |

| |graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the |color, graphics, effects, |graphics, effects, etc. but |but these often distract from the |

| |presentation. |etc. to enhance to |occasionally these detract |presentation content. |

| | |presentation. |from the presentation | |

| | | |content. | |

|Mechanics |No misspellings or grammatical errors. |Three or fewer misspellings |Four misspellings and/or |More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar. |

| | |and/or mechanical errors. |grammatical errors. | |

|Content |Covers topic in-depth with details and |Includes essential knowledge|Includes essential |Content is minimal OR there are several |

| |examples. Subject knowledge is |about the topic. Subject |information about the topic |factual errors. |

| |excellent. |knowledge appears to be |but there are 1-2 factual | |

| | |good. |errors. | |

|Organization |Content is well organized using |Uses headings or bulleted |Content is logically |There was no clear or logical organizational|

| |headings or bulleted lists to group |lists to organize, but the |organized for the most part.|structure, just lots of facts. |

| |related material. |overall organization of | | |

| | |topics appears flawed. | | |

|Originality |Product shows a large amount of |Product shows some original |Uses other people's ideas |Uses other people's ideas, but does not give|

| |original thought. Ideas are creative |thought. Work shows new |(giving them credit), but |them credit. Lacks persuasiveness needed for|

| |and inventive and will definitely |ideas and insights and might|there is little evidence of |project |

| |persuade tourists. |persuade tourists. |original thinking and might | |

| | | |persuade tourists. | |

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CREDITS & REFERENCES

Mrs. Janet Siceloff: Ridge School Library Assistant

Virginia Chamber of Commerce

AAA Travel Agency for the many travel brochures

Also, credit is given to the creators of the web sites we visited during our research. (See list of resources above.)

KWHL template given to students created by: Jill Baedke: cjbaedke@vcu edu

Storyboard template given to students created by: Jill Baedke: cjbaedke@vcu edu

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