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| Name: Genie Leake | Date: July 2, 2001 |
| Web Quest Evaluated: Periodic Poster Project | |
| Score | Explanation | |
| Overall Aesthetics (This refers to the Web Quest page itself, not the external resources linked to it.) | ||
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Overall visual appeal (0-2)
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1.5 | The visuals are eye catching and do relate to the topics being discussed. In addition, there is just the right amount of pictures for balance. It would have been better if the links to the web sites had the web site names, instead of just the URL's. |
| Introduction | ||
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Motivational effectiveness of Introduction (0-2)
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1.0 | I was somewhat confused as to what was going to be the purpose of the unit. There is no mention of what the final product would be (a class constructed periodic table) or what the student would be doing during this activity. Since Mendeleev actually constructed the periodic table in his lab using index cards, I would have mentioned that in the introductory along with a scenario explaining that the class would be recreating that time in history when Mendeleev was constructing his version of the periodic table. By adding this piece to the introduction as the task, the students would see the relevance of the history information included in the Web Quest along with the gathering of data about the elements. |
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Cognitive effectiveness of the Introduction
(0-2) |
1.0 | No mention is made where the students had been in terms of progress of understanding of chemistry. I would guess that it would be after studying matter and its properties, but since no mention is referenced in the introduction specifically, I would wonder what knowledge the students had prior to this project. When I looked at the ending assessments section, I noticed that there was an interactive quiz concerning compounds and nomenclature. I did not see any activities or information that would help students to acquire the skills needs to name the compounds or write the formulae. |
| Task (The task is the end result of student efforts... not the steps involved in getting there.) | ||
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Cognitive level of the task (0-6)
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2.5 | Students were merely matching information gathered from the sources, placing it on a colored board (the teacher determines the board color) and posting these colored board on the wall by color. Even though the process included information from the web sites concerning families and periods, there are no activities in which these concepts are applied in construction of the periodic table. Since the teacher determines the board color, students are not expected to understand the reasoning for the board color given to them by the teacher for one element and why the color is different for other elements. No activities involving "synthesis" (Bloom's taxonomy) in producing the boards is evident or the actual periodic table itself. Students are merely placing the information recorded on worksheets on this colored board, along with a poem. There is some creativity involved in terms how the content of the board is exhibited, but the actual thinking process similar to what Mendeleev had done in constructing the periodic table is not evident what information was proven useful in periodic table blocks. Again, due to the objectives of this periodic table construction not being clearly stated in the beginning, it is hard to determine what the students are to derive out of this project. In addition, there is a test which is mentioned after this project. The task is to be instrument of the assessment for a WebQuest, not just an activity to do. By making the format "general", there is no guidance for the student or educator using this Web Quest. |
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Technical sophistication of task (0-2)
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0.5 | Students are not using any high level of sophisticated technology in the final product. No computers are involved in the product, other than to gather information requested during the process or for word processing. Perhaps an online web page could have been constructed using appropriate software for that purpose, along with the one made in the classroom. |
| Process (The process is the step-by-step description of how students will accomplish the task.) | ||
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Clarity of Process (0-2)
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1.5 | The students are to be gathering information on worksheets about elements at web sites, but the purpose of this collected information does not seem to be evident on the Web page or worksheets themselves. I don't see any structure as to which elements are chosen (are the elements picked at random, teacher assigned or student choice?) Nothing is addressed with respect to duplicate choices of elements. If a periodic table is being developed, there is no assurance demonstrated that a majority of the elements will be researched. In addition, there are guidelines being provided by the teacher for poster board development, which should be on the web page for the Web Quest. |
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Richness of process (0-6)
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1.0 | Although the research is on the web, the data is recorded on worksheets. It appears that the Internet is being substituted for a textbook reading assignment to obtain content information, instead of research for the Task of the Web Quest. There is one activity at the end where students compare information about the elements and discuss it within the group. However, there is no class collaborative exercise mentioned after this sharing of information about the "like colored" elements of the groups. There is, also, a return to the classroom for additional information during the activities involved in the project about electrons and no connection to what the information gathered has to do with elements "being social". |
| Resources (Note: you should evaluate all resources linked to the page, even if they are in sections other than the Resources block. Also note that books, video and other off-line resources can and should be used where appropriate.) | ||
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Quantity of resources (0-2)
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1.5 | There are choices, but the students are given a variety of format. There are other web sites that give information about elements which have other formats than simply point at an element and click. |
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Quality of resources (0-4)
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1.0 | One of the links did not work for the history of the periodic table. In addition, one of the web sites has a picture that some of my students have mistakenly thought was a correctly depicted atomic structure picture (the nucleus is a solid ball and the same size as the electrons). This could to lead to misconceptions about atomic particles, locations, and sizes. At the other website, the one structure that has the number of each particle is a much better picture for the students to use while the other picture with the "solid ball" should be avoided. Some of the questions asked about the scientists were not relevant to the process of developing the periodic table. In addition, the interactive quizes at the end of the unit cause me to wonder if the test will merely be fact recall about the ideas from this webquest and the worksheets. |
| Evaluation | ||
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Clarity of Evaluation Criteria (0-2)
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0.5 | I could find no evaluation rubrics in terms of the elemental colored boards listed/posted or for the worksheets completed during the information gathering activities. Since this was a web site to be used by other educators, I believe the individuals involved wanted to that task to the educators themselves to develop and not constrain users to one particular format. |
| Total Score
(0-30) |
12.0/30 | Perhaps, in an effort to make this Web Quest usable for many different groups of students, it now has little use for any groups. |