What About A Webquest?

It is my belief students learn best by experiencing what they are learning. For this reason, I take my students on eight to ten field trips a year. One of my favorite places to visit with my students is the farm. I teach in a very urban area of Chicago and my students have little understanding of animals beyond squirrels, cats, dogs, and birds. Taking them to the farm could be equivalent to taking other kids to the moon. To them, it is like another world.

An important topic we learn about is the different types of animals on a farm. I think it would be a great idea to utilize a webquest to cover this topic. My idea is to have the students build their own farm. The challenge will be that they will only be allowed to choose a certain number on animals to live on their farm. I will provide them with several animal choices such as pigs, cows, horses, chickens, etc. to research and learn about what each animal provides. Once they have looked at all their options, they will create their final product farm and explain which ones they would include and give reasons why and also which ones they would not choose and give reasons why not.

I believe looking at the animals’ unique characteristics more critically will help students develop a deeper understand of the animals which will stay with them longer than just learning the animals’ names.