INTRODUCTION

This WebQuest is intended to work searching, presenting and assessing information about volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts around the world. Students will also receive information to put into practice about how to work in a group, how to make videos/presentations and how to use google earth.

You and your classmates are experts in geography and you all are members of the International Geographical Union (IGU) which is a European network of geography students and young geographers, with the intention of exchanging geographical knowledge.

Today you have to work from a satellite: this means that from behind your PC you are studying satellite photos and videos. 

In your class there are specialists in

• volcanoes
• waterfalls
• deserts

The IGU asks you to map the most important volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts and will ask you to give some relevant information.

The research will be done with "Google Earth", the program where everyone can examine satellite photos. It is a huge job, because there are hundreds of volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts. You have to choose your field of expertise (volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts) and form groups of at least 5 fellow members in order to compose teams of scientists for the assigned work: only together you can do the job.

TASK

1. First you have to watch some introductory videos on google earth (of course you will choose the one related to your field of expertise)
2. Now you need to know how to use google earth. A brief tutorial has to be used.
3. The International Geographical Union (IGU) asks you to make such a list of the main volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts around the world. Then you have to classify the main volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts by continent, by country and by type.
4. Then, in relation to your field of expertise, you have to answer some questions that the International Geographical Union (IGU) wants to know from your research.
5. Finally your group have to make a power point presentation that has to be shown to the other groups

PROCESS AND RESOURCES

1. First of all watch these videos on google earth (of course you will choose the one related to your field of expertise)

• • volcanoes
  • waterfalls
  • deserts

2. Now you need to know how to use google earth. Please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1gnPw0cqRI

3. it’s time to search for the other members of your team who have the same field of expertise for doing the job.

Each team member investigates a continent.

In a word-continent-document, you write down the data of the volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts.

Using the word-document below

worksheet-Geography.docx

You have to write the following information that the  International Geographical Union  needs to collect:

• • In which country the volcano of volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts lies.
  • What type of volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts are
  • Give a comprehensive description of the volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts
  • Are there any beliefs, stories, traditions linked to the volcanoes, waterfalls and deserts?

4. Now, in the same document, you have to connect the name of a volcano to a webcam.
• Search on the internet for the volcano, waterfall or desert webcams
• Select and copy the web address of the webcam
• Select the name of the volcano, waterfall or desert in the word-document
• Click in Word on “insert”-menu
• Point in the “insert”-menu to “hyperlink”.
• Keep the Ctrl-key pressed en push one time the “V”-key
  (This means “paste”)
  The web address of the webcam should be pasted.
• The name of the volcano, waterfall or desert can be pointed and is now linked to the webcam.

5. Search 3 videos of 3 different volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts and comment on your impressions.
6. Finally, together with the other members of your group make a presentation to be sent to the International Geographical Union.

Find below some suggestions for making presentations

Microsoft PowerPoint - Powerpoint is a familiar tool where slides contain images and information and can be advanced forward in a linear fashion. You may have Microsoft Office on your computer, or you can use docs.google.com or Sliderocket to create presentations that can be stored, shared, and published online.

Other free presentation software:

• • Prezi - https://prezi.com/
  • Google Slides - https://docs.google.com/presentation/u/0/
  • Keynote - https://www.apple.com/it/keynote/
  • Visme - https://www.visme.co/
  • Xtensio - https://xtensio.com/
  • Zoho Show - https://docs.zoho.com/show/signup

Remember to include a final slide or section that cites resources you used, URL (web addresses) are acceptable.

7. Once your presentation is done, it has to be presented to the rest of the class (all the presentations need to be presented). This is important in order to share information with your classmates. Each group has to evaluate the work done by the rest of the groups. This step will learn you how to peer review.

Each group can use the following Evaluation form/Grading Rubric

CONCLUSION

What you have learned from this Geography EarthQuest: 

• To use Google Earth.
• You have classified volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts by continent and by country, as a result, you saw that there are certain areas with many and few volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts
• You have classified volcanoes, waterfalls or deserts on the type and you have learned to sort the information table automatically.
• You have learned to take responsibility for the end product and to divide the tasks.

Evaluation of learning achievements

In this section we will not dive very deep into the underlying educational theories about evaluation and testing: there’s too much out there than we could possibly cover in this small project report.

Instead, we want to concentrate on procedures that enable both students/pupils and their teachers to establish if the learning goals of the Webquest were achieved and, if so, to what extent. We recommend teachers make use of a combined evaluation procedure, that consists of:

1. Statements by learners (after being asked to do so)
   • telling what they learned about the subject (knowledge-oriented self-evaluation): now (after going through the Webquest) I know that …
   • telling what he/she learned about herself/himself (formative evaluation, in this case, diagnostic self-evaluation): now (after going through the Webquest) I know about myself that I …
     This pair of basic statements add up to a so-called learner report, in which the pupil/student reflects on what the Webquest brought him/her in terms of acquired knowledge and new personal views and attitudes concerning the subject.

   For instance:

   • ‘I learned that in medieval times the hygiene of people was hardly a concern which helped to let epidemic diseases like the Plague cause so many casualties’ Or:
   • ‘I learned the facts and I know the earth is warming, but I cannot understand why people were so stupid to pollute the world and let it warm up so much.
   • ‘I learned from the information about diseases that this subject is more appealing to me than I would expect in advance: maybe I should consider a medical career’. Or:
     ‘The Webquests confirms what I thought already: I could not care less about the climate and global warming. In fact, I thought it was all a hoax and I still do!’

   This kind of assessment seems more subjective than it actually is: in his standard work on testing and evaluation (and much more), simply called Methodology (1974), Prof. A.D. de Groot described how consistent the student’s self-evaluations appeared to be: when asked again after 5 or 10 years, their evaluation would almost be the same. De Groot advised teachers to use the learner report as a start for joint evaluations, striving for consensus between teacher and student/pupil about the learning outcomes and their value for the learner, but also compared with the learning objectives as stated in the curriculum.

2. The learning achievements are visible in the output produced by the students: it is physical evidence: reports, answers to questions asked in the Webquest, presentations, and performance during presentations (preferably recorded). The teacher completes an evaluation grid stating clearly what the learning outcomes for the student/pupil are. The categories in the grid can be modified by the teacher to cover more precisely the content of a Webquest.

   >We advise teachers to use the grid to start a joint evaluation discussion, aiming at consensus or at least understanding between the teacher and the student/pupil about the learning outcomes: were they achieved (as planned in the curriculum and communicated before the Webquest started) and to what extent? To communicate the learning goals clearly before any learning activity starts, is a transparency requirement that is widely acknowledged in the educational community. The history of making learning objectives explicit goes back to the evaluation ‘Bible’ by Bloom, Hastings and Madaus: ‘Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning’ (1971), a standard work that also served as inspiration for the earlier mentioned Prof. De Groot.

The procedure also applies when students/pupils have worked together on a Webquest. The teacher will ask questions about individual contributions: ‘What did you find? What part did you write? How did you find the illustrations? Who made  the final presentation?’

All the evidence (of learning efforts and outcomes plus joint evaluations) is preferably stored in the learning portfolio of the student, or in any other suitable storage system (folders with written or printed documents, online collection of files, etcetera ).

Changes in personal points of view and feelings are harder to value and here the consensus between teacher and student/pupil about experiences during the learning process provides essential insights.

The grid below gives an example of how the evaluation of the learning process and achievements can be shaped: what kind of reactions to the Webquest does the teacher expect and how valuable are they? Is the teacher capable to explain the value or score allocated to answers or presentations given by pupils? Does the pupil/student understand the evaluation outcomes, and does he/she agree? If an agreement (consensus is not possible, it is still the teacher who decides how to value the student’s work.

Please note that the text in the grid addresses the pupil/student directly: this is important and it is in fact a prerequisite for using such an evaluation grid: it is specifically meant to enable a discussion of learning results between teacher and student and not to communicate learning achievements of learners to others who had no direct role in the Webquest.

Evaluation Grid