EXPLORING NEW ENGLAND

EXPLORING NEW ENGLAND

A WebQuest for Third Grade Social Studies

Claudia A. Luchetti

cluchetti@sad34.net

Introduction

Dear Third Grade Class,

Our class in California is planning a trip to the New England area next summer. We want to know some things about the six states of New England before we arrive and we hope you can help us out. We need maps which show important cities and land features for each state. We want to know about some famous people and events in the state's history. We also need your advice on interesting places to visit while we're on our trip. Could you send us brochures that contain this information to help us learn about your area and plan our trip?

Your friends,

The Third Grade Class

Peach Valley, California

The Task

You and your group will choose one of the six New England states: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut. You will investigate geography and history of your state and produce a brochure which contains the following information:

a map of the state showing at least three large cities, important land features such as mountains, rivers and lakes, and the places you recommend for a visit (see below).
illustrations and names of at least three symbols which represent the state (flowers, trees, animals, etc.),
a section which explains at least six important historical facts about people and events in your state,
a section which has suggestions of at least four places to visit in the state and why they are important in the state's history or geography.

Remember to organize your brochure so that it is interesting to look at and easy to read. Your brochure may be in the form of a large folding sheet like a road map, a booklet or a poster.

The Process

To complete your brochure, follow these steps:

You will be assigned to work in a group of 3 or 4 classmates.
Your group will choose or be assigned one of the New England states.
Get copies of your state map from your teacher. (You will get a copy for each member of your group. You can use these copies for note-taking. You will also get another copy to use for your final brochure.)
Organize your group. Decide whether you will all work together on the brochure or whether each member will work on a different part of the brochure.
Go to one or more of these websites to get basic information about your state:
Use these websites to get more detailed information about your state:
Take notes of information you need from the websites.
Plan your brochure. Be sure to think about these questions. What size will it be? Will it be on one page or more? Where will each section be located? How will you put it together?
Do the writing and drawing for your brochure. Check the next section on Evaluation to see how your brochure will graded based on the amount of information you include and the way your brochure looks.
Assemble your brochure and display it for the class.
For extra credit or just extra fun, here are some other activities you can complete which relate to the New England states:
- Print out the New England Map Quiz and answer the questions.
- Print out the map of any New England state and answer the questions: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island or Vermont.
- Play some Maine games.
- Take a quiz about Vermont facts.

Evaluation

Your brochure will be assessed based on the following chart. Tell your teacher whether your whole group produced all parts of your brochure or whether individual students did specific parts of the brochure. Your whole group will receive the same rating for the design of the brochure.

	Needs Improvement 1	Acceptable 2	Good 3	Outstanding 4
Map of the State	Missing more than two items, or Sloppy and hard to read	May be missing one or two items Neat and readable	Has all required information included Neat, colorful and easy to read	Has more than minimum information included Neat, colorful and easy to read
State Symbol Illustrations	Has fewer than three symbols	Has three symbols Drawing, coloring or labeling is not clear and neat	Has three symbols Neatly drawn, colored and labeled	Has more than three symbols Neatly drawn, colored and labeled
Historical Information	Has fewer that five important facts, or Presentation is hard to read	Has five or six important facts Presentation is readable but could use better organization	Has six important facts Presented in a clear and organized way in a list or written summary	Has more than six important facts Presented in a clear and organized way in a list or written summary
Places to Visit	Has fewer than four significant places, or Reasons not included, or Presentation is hard to read	Has four significant places Reasons may not be complete, or Presentation could be more clear and neat	Has four significant places Reasons included Neatly presented and located on map	Has more than four significant places Reasons included Neatly presented and located on map
Brochure Design	Not organized, or Sloppy and hard to read	Shows some organization Can be read Has some color	Well organized Easy to read Colorful and attractive	Well organized Easy to read Colorful and attractive Has extra design elements

Conclusion

By exploring New England in this webquest you should have gained some basic knowledge of the region in which we live. You should have expanded your horizons beyond our great state of Maine to our nearest neighbors. All the New England states share many elements of geography and history. At the same time, each state has its own individual characteristics and you've had the opportunity to explore one of those states on the web. You've also had the challenge of organizing lots of information into an attractive format to communicate what you've learned to others. Did this experience make you eager to explore New England in person? Are you more interested in exploring other parts of the United States or the world on the World Wide Web? Both of these experiences could easily be a part of your future.

Credits & References

All the websites used in for reference in developing this webquest are included in the links above with the exception of the Yankee Magazine site.

Many thanks to Phil Bloomstein, K - 5 Technical Coordinator for SAD#34, for providing the opportunity and assistance to develop this webquest under a Goals 2000 grant.

Additional references in the form of atlases, electronic or hard copy encyclopedia, or reference books could be used to supplement the website links included in this program.

Last updated on August 15, 1999. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page