Epidemic Webquest

Epidemic Mini-Research

A WebQuest for 10th Grade (English Language Arts)

Designed by

Jaimie N. Hatfield
jaimie.hatfield@lrsd.org

     

       

Introduction | Task | Process | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits

Introduction

You wake to find a portal in your room. You are too curious to walk away, so now you have traveled to a time and place where there is an extreme epidemic. People are dying every where around you.

It is your job to discover what is causing so many to suffer and die. You must first identify the symptoms and the progression of the disease. After that, you must determine the causes of the disease and how the environment/people have been impacted.

Before you succumb to the illness yourself, you wake up to your alarm going off. Whew! I was only a dream. Yet, you are still curious as to how the epidemic was handled. You wonder, “Did they find a cure? Is it preventable? Is it still around today?” You will only find these answers through the magic of research.

(Note: Although the introduction is written in second person, you have to maintain a third person point of view for your research paper as a matter of formality.)

Essential/Guiding Questions: How have epidemics impacted society? Why are they represented in literature?  

 

The Task

• Research your chosen epidemic position;
• Develop a informational text that addresses the epidemic;
• Demonstrate academically appropriate writing and MLA format usage. 

 

The Process

To accomplish the task, what steps should the learners go through? Use the numbered list format in your web editor to automatically number the steps in the procedure. Describing this section well will help other teachers to see how your lesson flows and how they might adapt it for their own use, so the more detail and care you put into this, the better. Remember that this whole document is addressed to the student, however, so describe the steps using the second person.

1.      Preview this video 

2.      Choose one of the discussed epidemics to research.

3.      Find five online sources and email me the links at jaimie.hatfield574@students.lrsd.org

4.      Complete the bubble map for your essay.

5.      Begin your first draft.

6.      Use Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) to assist you in using the proper MLA format.

7.      Use Bower’s Essay Architect to help with the structure of the essay.    

8.      Submit your first draft to jaimie.hatfield574@students.lrsd.org

9.      Upon return of your draft, edit and revise your paper to create your final draft.

 

Evaluation

Research Report : Epidemic Webquest Teacher Name: Ms. Hatfield  Student Name:     ________________________________________

CATEGORY	4 AWESOME SAUCE	3 LOOKING GOOD	2 MET EXPECTATIONS	1 OPPORTUNITY FOR REDO
Graphic Organizer	Graphic organizer or outline has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between all topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has been completed and shows clear, logical relationships between most topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has been started and includes some topics and subtopics.	Graphic organizer or outline has not been attempted.
First Draft	Detailed draft is neatly presented and includes all required information.	Draft includes all required information and is legible.	Draft includes most required information and is legible.	Draft is missing required information and is difficult to read.
Mechanics	No grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors.	Almost no grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors	A few grammatical spelling, or punctuation errors.	Many grammatical, spelling, or punctuation errors.
Paragraph Construction	All paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Most paragraphs include introductory sentence, explanations or details, and concluding sentence.	Paragraphs included related information but were typically not constructed well.	Paragraphing structure was not clear and sentences were not typically related within the paragraphs.
Quality of Information	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. It provides 1-2 supporting details and/or examples.	Information clearly relates to the main topic. No details and/or examples are given.	Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic.
Sources	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented in the MLA format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but a few are not in the MLA format.	All sources (information and graphics) are accurately documented, but many are not in the MLA format.	Some sources are not accurately documented.