Reflection on Final Project

I have always found that Webquests are useful tools. I was excited to see that I would be able to make one as my final project for this class. I decided to choose a fun project for my final unit in my classroom that revolves around Chicago. I wanted to create a project that involves students researching the building in Chicago themselves, finding out their purpose, their history, and I wanted them to pay attention to what they look like.

My webquest is designed for students to use what they have learned through learning about existing buildings in Chicago to design their own. It involves working together as a team and a little bit of competition.

I really thought this would be a great idea because I know personally I have gone to Chicago many times before and I have not paid attention to the way the buildings are designed. I hope that this webquest will inspire students to slow down in big cities to pay attention to what they look like and to see if they can guess how they were built.

This lesson is designed to include social studies, math, and art. I love when a webquest is designed to cover more than one subject area.

Over all I really enjoyed making this webquest. I especially enjoyed the fact that I used Adobe Dreamweaver to make the webquest. I thought about using a template that I found online that already had the template made for me; however, I enjoyed the fact that I designed it from scratch. I enjoyed looking for different resources to include in the webquest and how to construct the entire adventure.

I also understand now how useful webquests can be for a classroom. It does take quite a bit of work to set up a webquest; however, once it is finished it is something that a student can use so easily, as long as the webquest is set up in a user friendly way. It allows students to use the computer with the Internet and conduct an adventure on their own that results in a common goal that should be learned. I love the fact that students can gain independence by following directions and yet it’s like the teacher is helping them the entire time. Webquests can be adapted to anyone with special needs and can be used for all ages.

I personally enjoyed this experience in all that it has to offer. I hope to make more webquests for the future to inspire my students to think for themselves in the adventure of learning.