Introduction

This lesson was developed in conjunction with a RI Geography Education Alliance Advanced Institute. The institute provided teachers with the opportunity to attend the NCGE (National Council of Geographic Education) national conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. In addition to attending the conference, institute participants were required to do additional research in the area and develop an instructional unit for use in their classroom. This webquest seeks to combine a study of Canadian cities which is part of my 8th grade geography curriculum with computer technology in an interesting and challenging exercise.

After doing research on one of 5 Canadinan cities students, working in groups, are asked to prepare a ten minute oral presentation designed to advance their city as a site for the 2010 Winter Olympic games. The students will be required to do research using both print and electronic resources and produce written and graphic material to support their oral presentation.

Learners

This unit is anchored in eighth grade World Geography. It is intended for a heterogeneously grouped class of learners.  It involves language arts and math to a lesser extent. The unit can be easily adapted to either lower or higher grade levels.

Basic technology skills such as effectively  searching the Internet and harvesting images from the Internet will be needed. Students must also be familiar with the basics of persuasive writing and speaking techniques. 

Curriculum Standards

Geography Standards Addressed

The geographically informed person knows and understands:

1. How to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to acquire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective.

4. The physical and human characteristics of places

10. The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of earth's cultural mosaics
 

Applied Learning Standards Addressed

A2a: The student makes an oral presentation of project plans or findings to an audience beyond the school.

A3b: The student uses information technology to assist in gathering, analyzing, organizing, and presenting information.

A5a: The student takes responsibility for a component of a team project.

Process

This unit will take several weeks to complete and will be part of an 8 week unit on Canada. Students will work on this project 1-2 days per week. This unit could be taught as a single disciplinary unit, an interdisciplinary unit, or a multidisciplinary unit depending on the teaching situation and the individuals involved. In my case the bulk of the project is done in the social studies class,  with the language arts teacher providing support with the persuasive speaking and writing aspects of the assignment. The art teacher could be involved with the creative aspects of the project and a technology educator or library/ media specialist could provide support with the research components of the project.

Students are divided into groups of five for this project. Group / team assignments are made by the teacher based a multiple intelligences skills inventory conducted earlier in the year. Group assignments also take into consideration personality characteristics, work habits, and overall ability of the students.

Variations

This unit could be adopted to many other regions of the world depending upon the region being studied. The underlying scenario, selection of a city, could be modified to something other than an Olympic host city.

Resources Needed

• Travel books for each city
• National Geographic magazines with feature stories on each Canadian city
• Word processing and graphics software 
• A minimum of one computer with Internet access for each group
• Atlases and other geographical reference books
• Video clips of the opening ceremony of a recent Olympics if available

Olympic Basics
http://trackandfield.about.com/library/weekly/aa072500a.htm

Special Olympics
http://www.specialolympics.org/

Winter Olympics 2002
http://www.saltlake2002.com/

Selection Procedure for Olympic Host Cities
http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/facts/cities/host_city_elect_proc_e.html

The Athlete
http://www.journale.com/kodak/olympics/theathlete/index.shtml

Canadian National Atlas
http://atlas.gc.ca/english/index.html

Virtually Vancouver
http://www.virtuallyvancouver.com/
 

Human resources: For the culminating event, the oral presentations on each city, an audience is needed. Several alternatives are possible - another classroom, parent volunteers, or community representatives. The task becomes more authentic as an outside audience is assembled. If at all possible representatives of an advertising agency, public relations firm, or Chamber of Commerce should be included. They are professionals who have a valid perspective on the topic and would add credibility to the selection procedure. 

If there is an Olympic athlete in the community who would be willing to visit the class to add a personal perspective on the Olympics and answer questions, this would add another   dimension of interest an authenticity to the project.
 
 

Evaluation

Each student will receive three grades for this project. Two will be individual grades and one will be a group grade. Each student will receive an individual grade for the product created for the assigned role. Each student will also receive an individual grade for his / her portion of the oral presentation. A third grade, a  group grade will be determined by how well the members worked as a team to produced a well integrated product. 

Students will also complete charts assessing their individual contributions to the group effort. They will also be asked to rate how group members worked together and to make suggestions for improvement in that area.

Conclusion

This unit will reinforce the following skills:

• group planning / team work
• analysis / selection /organization of supporting material
• persuasive writing and speaking
• technology skills
• research skills

Credits & References

Special thanks to the Rhode Island Geography Education Alliance for providing me with the opportunity to visit Vancouver, British Columbia. That visit was the inspiration for this WebQuest.

I am indebted to the WebQuest Page (http://edweb.sdsu.edu/ webquest/webquest.html) created by Bernie Dodge. This site provided an insight into this technique for effectively using the internet to create  engaging and challenging instructional activities.

Additional books and web sites are referenced throughout this project.