Science Investigators

A WebQuest for Third Grade (Science)

Introduction

What is a Telescope? What is a Microscope? What are they used for? Who uses them? How are they the same? How are they different? Through the discovery of these answers, you will learn the purposes of these scientific tools.

Task

You will break up into two groups. One group will research and answers to the telescope questions. While the other group work on the microscope questions. There will be two groups of two students. Each group will answer the questions provided. In your groups, elect a leader and a recorder. The leader will navigate and research the web sites and the recorder will record their findings.

When both groups have completed the question and have researched the web sites, meet back as a whole group of four to report your findings. After you have shared your answers, use the Inspiration program to create a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two scientific instruments.

Together, write a paper that contains the information researched. Make sure the paper has one paragraph of what the two instruments have and common and another paragraph that explains the differences.

Process

1. Break up into two groups of two people. Decide on who will be the leader for your group and who will be the recorder. Decide on what group will research the microscope and what group will research the telescope.

2. Print out the sheets of paper to record your answers on. Just print out the paper that corresponds to you group. Click on the mane of your selected instrument to print out you questionnaire.

Telescope Microscope

Telescope Links

Microscope Links

http://www.factmonster.com/

http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/space/telescope.html

http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/telescope.html

http://www.users.bigpond.com/robertnowland/History/history.htm

Bonus Site (If time permits)

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://www.factmonster.com/

http://www.az-microscope.on.ca/history.htm

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/leeuwenhoek.html

http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/b/egalilg.html

Bonus Site (It time permits)

http://www.denniskunkel.com/PublicHtml/n_stock4.htm

3. Once all the questions are answered, meet back together to share your result. Make sure you point out everything that may be the same or different. Have a recorder to write down your results.

4. Open a new document with the Inspiration program. Create a Venn Diagram to display you findings on what are the same and different about these instruments.

5. As a whole group, write up paper on your findings. Write one paragraph to explain how Microscopes and telescopes are the same. Then write up a second paragraph how they are different.

Evaluation

Here is how you will be graded. You will receive one grade for your group work. Remember this is a group project so work as a group not as an individual. You will be graded on your Questionnaire, your graphic organizer and on your group's paper.

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
Group Process	No team work. One person doing all the work.	Individual process. One person doing the work for the team. Group works on paper.	Teams work together but no collaboration.	The pair works as a team collaborating on their research. Paper reflecting a group process
Questionnaire	Not done	Half of the questions answered and/or not complete sentences.	Most of the questions answered with complete sentences.	All questions answered in complete sentences.
Graphic Organizer (Example of end product)	No attempt. No Venn Diagram	Some of the answers Placed in a Venn Diagram.	Most of the answers placed correctly in a Venn Diagram.	All Answers displayed in a Venn Diagram. Bonus points for added graphics.
Writing Composition	Sentence structure errors, less than two paragraphs. Incomplete work	Two Paragraphs. Compare and contrast. Sentence structure errors.	Complete paper with some selling and sentence structure errors.	Paper consists of Intro, compare, contrast and conclusion as complete paragraphs. Bonus for graphics.

Conclusion

You have now found out the differences between a microscope and a telescope. You now know what they are used for, and who helped create these scientific instruments. By completing this project, I hope you know how it feels to work in a group and how you contribute to a group process. You also learned how to create a Venn diagram and have the ability to take ideas from a graphic organizer and place them in a writing prompt.

How would science be different if these tools were not invented? What are some things that might not be discovered today without the use of a microscope or a telescope? What more can be done with the use of these two instruments?

Credits & References

Thanks to the other members of my group for inspiration. Jackie, Susan, Donna and Lynne.

Here is the link to the program Inspiration http://www.inspiration.com/index.cfm. This is not what my group gave me that I mentioned in the previous line.

Template for this webquest was borrowed from The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns page.

"We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, 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 WebQuest. 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."

Last updated on (Oct. 29th, 2002). Based on a template from The WebQuest Page