What's So Special About that State?

A WebQuery for 3rd Grade

Designed by:

Rachael Schurman
SchurmanR@cwu.edu

USAMap

Introduction | Task | Process | Resources | Evaluation | Conclusion

Introduction

If you were able to spend a day in Texas what would you do? Where would you eat? What kind fun things can you do there? What kind of weather might you see? What are the best things about Texas and why would anyone go to that state?

Students get ready for a trip! I love to travel and I would like for you to help me out. So here is where you come in. You are my travel agent! I want to find a new state to travel to, so your role is to create a brochure about a state that will make me want to travel there. You will use the internet as your resource, just as a travel agent might!

You may be thinking, "Why do I need to know about the states in the U.S.?" Well if every single person here learns one interesting fact about the United States you will be a more knowledgeable person, and will be more aware of the country we call "home". 

Good luck agent!

Task

You will be creating a brochure that tells me everything I need to know about your state before I travel there. This brochure will help me to make the best out of my trip and make the most of the time I spend there.

You will draw sticks to determine the order of who gets to pick a particular state first. You get what you get so don't throw a fit! There will be no duplicates.

You will be retrieving all of your resources from the internet! This is your chance to take advantage of the computers we have at our disposal. You will also be using the technology to create your project. You will use Microsoft Word to create your state brochure.

Make sure you include the following items:

1. Incorporate 2 pictures in your brochure (Search online for a picture or clip art that represents your state well).
2. Your name so that we know what travel agent is in charge!
3. Pick at least 5 of the following facts to add to your brochure:
4. Site 2 sources that you used to create your brochure.
5. It is your goal to make me want to visit your state, so find the most exciting things you can out about your state and make it so I can't say no!

The Process

Students I want you to have the freedom to do what you want with this project! So explore at your own rate and feel free to design your brochure in any way you see fit! There will be no rules to how you organize your brochure. 

Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself while woking on this project:

Resources

I hope you find these resources helpful! Use these links to help you in your research:
 

Evaluation

This is the rubric that will be used in grading the students project. Since they are working individually they will be graded based on their final project.

CATEGORY
4
3
2
1
Graphics/Pictures
Graphics go well with the text and there is a good mix of text and graphics.
Graphics go well with the text, but there are so many that they distract from the text.
Graphics go well with the text, but there are too few and the brochure seems "text-heavy".
Graphics do not go with the accompanying text or appear to be randomly chosen.
Spelling & Proofreading
No spelling errors remain after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the brochure.
No more than 1 spelling error remains after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the brochure.
No more than 3 spelling errors remain after one person other than the typist reads and corrects the brochure.
Several spelling errors in the brochure.
Attractiveness & Organization
The brochure has exceptionally attractive formatting and well-organized information.
The brochure has attractive formatting and well-organized information.
The brochure has well-organized information.
The brochure's formatting and organization of material are confusing to the reader.
Knowledge Gained
All students in the group can accurately answer all questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
All students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
Most students in the group can accurately answer most questions related to facts in the brochure and to technical processes used to create the brochure.
Several students in the group appear to have little knowledge about the facts or technical processes used in the brochure.
Facts
At least 5 facts are located within the brochure. The fact suggestions are in the task section of the WebQuery.
4 facts are located within the brochure. The fact suggestions are in the task section of the WebQuery.
3 facts are located within the brochure. The fact suggestions are in the task section of the WebQuery.
One or two facts are located within the brochure. The fact suggestions are in the task section of the WebQuery.

Conclusion

I hope that you are happy with your findings! Now that you have researched your state I hope that you look forward to visiting that state some day with your new found knowledge.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuery, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuery. On the line after the original author's name, you may add "Modified by (your name) on (date)". If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

This template is based on the original WebQuest template.

To learn more about WebQuery, visit The WebQuery Page.