WebQuest

Washington DC

A WebQuest for 3th Grade (Social Studies)

Introduction

Washington D.C. is our nations capitol. It is located near the eastern shore of the United States. In 1790 the United States Congress agreed on a location along the Potomac River for a national capital. Maryland and Virginia agreed to give land for the capital city. This area is called the District of Columbia and it resides in the same location today.

There are many important historical sites located in our nation's capitol. If you were to travel to Washington D.C., what are some of the fascinating places you would like to see? How about the Lincoln Memorial or the White House? Is there anyone in particular you would like to meet? The President of the United States perhaps?

Your task in this WebQuest is to design a tour of Washington D.C. You will be assigned a group who has never been to Washington D.C. It is your job to give them a tour of the city showing them places that would be interesting to visit. You will be given a list of "places of interest", and it's web site. Choose only from the list of web sites given.

Task

In this WebQuest, you and a partner will become tour guides of Washington D.C. You will be leading a group of out-of-town visitors around our Nation's Capitol. Some of the places you will want visit with your group would be the White House, or The National Zoo. While you and your partner are leading this tour, you will need to give your visitors some background information on each of the places you visit. This means you will need to do a little research on the places you are going to visit so you will be ready with the information. You will have note cards to take notes on. This will be the information you use when describing the location to your tour group.

You will need to visit 4 locations thoughout the tour. At the end, you and your partner will write up a brief itinerary that explains the layout of your tour. The tour will last for a 5 to 6 hours.

Process

READ ALL THE DIRECTIONS BEFORE YOU CLICK! Here is how you are going to prepare your tour:

1. Choose a partner. Be sure this is someone you can work well with and get the assignment completed in the time allotted.

2. Check out these websites. Make sure you read them thoroughly and click on any links that may contain information valuable for your research. View all of the websites before making your final decision. The websites are as follows:

The White House
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/
The National Zoo
    http://nationalzoo.si.edu/default.cfm
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
    http://www.nasm.si.edu/
Arlington National Cemetery
    http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/historical_information/index.html
The Lincoln Memorial
    http://www.nps.gov/linc/home.htm
The Washington Monument
    http://www.nps.gov/wamo/home.htm
The Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI
    http://www.fbi.gov/kids/k5th/kidsk5th.htm
The Vietnam Memorial Wall
    http://www.tourofdc.org/monuments/VVM/
The Thomas Jefferson Memorial
    http://www.nps.gov/thje/
The Korean War Veterans Memorial
    http://www.nps.gov/kwvm/memorial/memorial.htm
The Franklin Deleno Roosevelt Memorial
    http://www.nps.gov/fdrm/
The United States Mint
    http://www.usmint.gov/kids/flashindex.cfm

3. Take notes on the websites you visited. Some of the key facts you should have are:
Why is this place important? What is interesting to know about this location? What makes it special and worth visiting?

4. You and your partner will write out an itinerary of your tour. The itinerary needs to be typed after you have written a rough draft. The rough draft should be edited by your partner, and turned in with the final draft. Make sure you include:

Where will you go first? Why? (What is most important about this location?) Approximate time. What time will you get there? How long will you be there?
Where will you go second? Why? (What is most important about this location?) Approximate time. What time will you get there? How long will you be there?
Where will you go third? Why? (What is most important about this location?) Approximate time. What time will you get there? How long will you be there?
Where will you go fourth? Why? (What is most important about this location?) Approximate time. What time will you get there? How long will you be there?

5. Share your with another group.

Evaluation

You and your partner will recieve a grade as a group. You will be scored on the following items:

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3
Historical accuracy	Has no historical facts about location.	Has one or two historical facts about location	Report includes historical facts and reflects research.
Tour has a logical locations	Tour does not include any locations from the list.	Tour includes 2 locations from the list of websites.	Tour includes all 4 required locations from the list of websites.
Notecards	Notecard do not contain any facts.	Notecards contain 1 or 2 facts about the location.	Notecards are full of facts and information about the location of the tour.
Quality of Writing	Writing has many spelling and punctuation mistakes.	Writing has a few spelling or punctuation mistakes.	Writing contains no spelling or punctuation mistakes. There are no grammar mistakes in paper as well.
Itinerary	There is no itinerary.	Itinerary has the rough draft but no completed final draft.	Students turn in final draft of the itinerary typed and proof read.

Conclusion

Upon completing tour of Washington D.C., you will have had the chance to experience part of our nations capital. You have been able to have a first hand look at the different memorials and monuments, as well as, the White House and the FBI. After reading through the websites, taking notes, and writing up and itinerary, you will have learned about a few of the historically significant sites found only in Washington D.C.

Credits & References

The image used in this WebQuest was obtained from:

www.vaniasphotos.tripod.com

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.

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