Dreaming of Millions? Webquest

Last Friday I asked my cooperating teacher about the next science units they would be doing, so I decided to search for a webquest relating to one of those. One unit the class will be doing is about resources (SOL 3.10 and 3.11) and they are also doing a unit on soil (SOL 3.7). The webquest Dreaming of Millions provides an integration of these two topics.

I liked the way the webquest is presented as a story: the student finds out that he or she has inherited a farm from a distant relative and has to grow corn on it. There are lots of links throughout the story; some are informative and some are fun. The student works with a partner to research the area they plan to have their farm and plan a road trip to the farm. The team then researches corn, its benefits, and ways to grow it. Third, the team researches ethanol and completes a project that supporting its use. Finally, each team figures out how wealthy they will be from their farms. In addition to these tasks, the students are to write an email to their partner at the beginning of the project, so they also get practice with emailing skills.

This webquest is very well put together, well organized and interesting to look at without being too busy. All of the links worked that I tried, and the ones that I looked at seemed to be useful for the project. I can see however, that this webquest may be difficult for my third grade class, even though it relates to the subjects they are studying. It really seems to be aimed at slightly older students, but I believe they could work through most of it with some assistance. The other issue with this webquest is that it is quite long – I can see it taking a few weeks to complete. It might be beneficial to only complete certain tasks if in a time crunch.