Where in the Nation

Introduction

Task

Process

Evaluation

Conclusion

Credits

Teacher Page

Where in the Nation

Would You Like To Vacation?

^{A
WebQuest for 4th grade Social Studies}

^{Designed by}

^{Jeff Payton
& Heidi Gray}

^{paytonj@shawnee.edu}^{hgray5@adelphia.net}

^{Created
May 2003}

Introduction

It's that time of year again... Summer Vacation! Every year your parents choose a state to explore for two weeks. While in that state your family visits a lot of fantastic places like historical sites, museums, amusement parks, and state parks. This year your parents have decided to let YOU help decide which state to explore. But first you must find a state and research about the activities and history of that state. But that's not all... you then must convince your parents that this is...

"THE PLACE IN THE NATION TO VACATION."

Good Luck!

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Task

This is a group project ~ 3-4 students per group. Cooperation and hard work is mandatory from all group members!

1. Each group must pick a state to research. Once your group has decided upon a particular state your job is to find out the following regarding the chosen state:

State Population

State Capitol

State Flag

State Motto

State Flower

State Tree

State Bird

This information must be listed in a one to two page report.

2. The group must also research tourism attractions in the state. These may include state parks, museums, historical landmarks, amusement areas, recreational activities, and annual festivals.

3. Using the information from tasks 1 and 2, create a tourism poster that would persuade your parents to visit the state of your choice.

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Process

1. Meet with your assigned group to choose a state which you would like to visit.

2. Once everyone in the group has agreed upon a state, visit these websites to gather the required information.

TheUS50.com

Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory

Ask Jeeves for Kids

Your group may also find other websites for information but they must be approved by the teacher.

3. Now that you have gathered all the required information about your state, you can now begin writing the report. Each student must complete an individual written report on their state. Remember to include the facts listed in task #1. You can also add any interesting facts or information to your report. Please remember that correct punctuation and grammar are required. Make these reports unique and creative.

4. Now for the real challenge....Convincing your parents that your state is the place in the nation to vacation. To help convince your parents, you must create a poster promoting the tourism attractions of the state you wish to visit. These include museums, state and national parks, amusement parks, zoos, historical landmarks, and annual festivals. Anything you think will make your parents want to visit should be included on this poster. Remember that creativity is part of your evaluation. Click below to view a sample poster.

Sample Poster

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Evaluation

The final grade of the project will be based on the criteria outlined in the task section of this webquest. You may use the rubric below as a guide. There is a total of 20 points possible for this assignment.

Category	Excellent - 5 points	Good - 4 points	Satisfactory - 3 points	Needs Improvement - 2 points
Content	Covers topic in-depth with details and examples. Subject knowledge is excellent.	Includes essential knowledge about the topic. Subject knowledge appears to be good.	Includes essential information about the topic but there are 1-2 factual errors.	Content is minimal OR there are several factual errors.
Organization	Content is well organized using headings or bulleted lists to group related material.	Uses headings or bulleted lists to organize, but the overall organization of topics appears flawed.	Content is logically organized for the most part.	There was no clear or logical organizational structure, just lots of facts.
Mechanics	No misspellings or grammatical errors.	Three or fewer misspellings and/or mechanical errors.	Four misspellings and/or grammatical errors.	More than 4 errors in spelling or grammar.
Attractiveness	Makes excellent use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance the presentation.	Makes good use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. to enhance to presentation.	Makes use of font, color, graphics, effects, etc. but occasionally these detract from the presentation content.	Use of font, color, graphics, effects etc. but these often distract from the presenation content.

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Conclusion

Congratulations! You are now on your way to a great vacation! Isn't it amazing how much there is to do in just one state? Just imagine how much there is to do in the whole United States! It would take a lifetime to do it all.

Let's look back at the assignment and see what skills you have learned:

1. You can now obtain state information from a variety of electronic sources.

2. You have practiced writing skills, especially communicating information into a written report in an organized manner.

3. While choosing places to display on the tourism poster, you gathered information, considered the advantages and disadvantages of the tourism sites, and developed a way to judge if the site was worthy of being placed on the poster.

Great Job!

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Teacher Page

This WebQuest lesson was designed for a fourth grade Social Studies Class. The lesson was developed to target the Ohio Academic Content Standards for the fourth grade, Social Studies Skills and Methods, Standards 1, 3, 5, 9, and 10.

This lesson requires the students to work cooperatively with their fellow students in an effort to complete the tasks. The written report requirement of the lesson allows for an integrated English lesson. The lesson could be modified to incorporate math skills by adding an element to the task that requires the students to budget the trip.

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