Teacher+Page


 * Teacher Introduction **

This Web Quest was designed for partial fulfillment of course requirements for my 811, Adapting Innovative Technology to Education Course, at Michigan State University (MSU), within a Master's programme. The target audience is PYP Grade 4 students at an I.B. school. My school, Lincoln Community School, is an International Baccalaureate (I.B.) school and follows the Primary Years Program (PYP). The Web Quest is to be the Summative Assessment for our unit on Ecosystems. , with its central idea, “Biodiversity relies on maintaining the interdependent balance of organisms within systems.” The inquiry points, that have to be investigated before this summative assessment, are as follows:

==== The task will be for the students to individually create an iMovie documentary, explaining how an organism is affected by changes in its ecosystem. Even though Web Quests are highyl effective tools for collaboration, here it is intended a an individual project since it is a summative assessment. This Web Quest will be a culmination of the skills and knowledge they have learnt throughout this unit of inquiry on ecosystems. The expectation is that the students should be able to explain and give examples of each of the inquiry points. I will know if the students have accomplished this, if their graphic organizers show that they have been able to answer the sub questions in their task definition. I will also see their success if they have been able to synthesize their research and create an iMovie explaining the ecosystem in which their organism lives, the food chain/web it is part of, explain how the balance has been upset, along with suggestions for redressing the imbalance. ====

==== Students have been introduced to, and applied the Big6 research process during scheduled library lessons leading up to this summative assessment. With guidance, they are now to apply it to use information to create their video. Of course, we have helped them our by finding some useful resources, but they will still have to evaluate whether they are useful or not. ====
 * Teacher Task **

This is a Science unit of inquiry and therefore this webquest will address the following Grades 3-5 McRel Science standards.
 * === Teacher Standards: McRel Science Standards ===

||
 * ==== · Knows that plants and animals progress through life cycles of birth, growth and development, reproduction, and death; the details of these life cycles are different for different organisms ==== ||
 * ==== · Knows that living organisms have distinct structures and body systems that serve specific functions in growth, survival, and reproduction ==== ||
 * ==== · Knows that plants have features that help them live in different environments ==== ||
 * ==== · Knows that the behavior of individual organisms is influenced by internal cues and external cues, and that humans and other organisms have senses that help them to detect these cues ==== ||


 * ==== Standard 6: Understands relationships among organisms and their physical environment ====

||
 * ==== · Knows the organization of simple food chains and food webs ==== ||
 * ==== · Knows that the transfer of energy is essential to all living organisms ==== ||
 * ==== Knows that living things are found almost everywhere in the world and that distinct environments support the life of different types of plants ==== ||
 * ==== Knows that an organism’s patterns of behavior are related to the nature of that organism’s environment ==== ||
 * ==== Knows that changes in the environment can have different effects on different organisms ==== ||
 * ==== Knows that all organisms (including humans) cause changes in their environments, and these changes can be beneficial or detrimental ==== ||

An outline is given on the Process page of the Big6 steps the children have to go through to fulfill their task.
 * Teacher Process **

Children will use the rubric on the evaluation page to self assess.
 * Teacher Evaluation **