Lesson 6: Energy Webquest

 

Science Standard VI.1 Matter and Energy: All students will measure and describe things around us; explain what the world around us is made of; identify and describe forms of energy; and explain how electricity and magnetism interact with matter.

 

National Technology Standards

2. Social, ethical and human issues

·        Discuss basic issues related to responsible use of technology and information and describe personal consequences of inappropriate use.

5. Technology research tools

·        Students use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.

 

 

Objective:

1.       Students will be able to evaluate the information provided on various websites.

2.     Students will provide a summary of a website and create a question that can be answered by visiting the site.

3.     Students will complete an electricity webquest.

 

Materials

·        Computers with Internet access

·        Word processing software

·        Websites:

1.  Pathfinder (scroll down to get to websites)

http://nb.wsd.wednet.edu/lmc/pathfinders/electricity_pathfinder.htm

2. Energy Quest http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/index.html

3. Sites that correlate with McMillan/McGraw-Hill science text http://pages.xtn.net/~sped/gifted/activities/sci/science4.html#Electrical%20Energy

4. Electrical Energy Sites http://www.oswego.org/staff/cchamber/resources/energy.cfm

 

 

 

 

Engage

When we first started talking about energy, we discussed different types of energy and what we knew about these types of energy. Today, we are going to explore some websites on energy.

 

 

Explore

Students will work independently to evaluate websites about electricity and energy. To start out, log on to schoolnotes.com and click on Miss Herm’s page. Click on one of the websites and explore it for a few minutes. As you look at it, think about what you like about the website and why. How is the information provided on the site helpful to you? How does it help you to learn about electricity or energy? Based on what you have learned about energy and electricity, is the information on the site accurate? Is there information on the site that we did not learn about in class? Before you choose a website to write about, I would like you to look at ten different websites. You may find that some of the sites are not helpful to you, contain inaccurate information or are not functioning.

          Once you have explored at least ten different sites, open a word document. Cut and paste the web address into your document. Write a short summary of why you liked the site and how it was helpful to you. Make up a question that can be answered by visiting the site and provide the answer as well.

Example:

http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/index.html

This site talks about different kinds of energy, including electricity, and has directions for experiments you can do with energy. It also has some neat games about electrical safety.

Question (From Frankenstein’s Lightning Laboratory): How is static electricity created?

Answer: Static electricity is created when an object gives up or gains electrons.

Try to write a question and answer for at least 3 different websites. When you are done, make sure your name is on your paper and print out one copy to hand in.

          After the students have handed in their questions, look through them and select some to post on the schoolnotes.com site. Have the students type their questions on the site. When all the questions have been posted, the students can visit schoolnotes.com again to begin their webquest. To find the questions, click on Mr. Pantaleo’s name. There are ten questions posted, answer at least 8 of the questions, using complete sentences. I should be able to figure out what the question is from reading your answer. Open a word processing document to type your answers to the questions. You cannot answer the questions that you wrote.

 

Develop

Discuss the questions on the webquest.  What did you learn from answering the questions? Which websites had the most useful information? Did you find any websites that had incorrect information on them?

 

Extend/Apply

As you have seen, the Internet can be a very useful tool for finding information. There are many more sites you can explore to find out about electricity and energy in general.