Introduction

This WebQuest is intended to be used during my unit entitled,  "Immigration - Early 20th Century".  It is a unit that primarily begins after our study of Reconstruction, and in conjunction with our unit on the American Industrial Revolution. 

The intent of this WebQuest is to allow students to research and discover interesting facts about the geographic features, people, places, historical sites, history, foods, and current events of various European countries from which the majority of early 20th century immigrants came from.  Hopefully students will be able to appreciate their ancestral ties to Europe a little better by having done some in-depth study of those countries. 

Learners

This lesson is intended for 10th grade Social Studies students who are working on units involving European Immigration to the United States following the American Civil War.  It is intended primarily for upper-level students, but may be altered to accommodate learners of all levels.

Students do not need a lot of background knowledge in the area of Immigration.  They do, however, need access to computers, and have knowledge of PowerPoint and web-surfing.  Students should have already been instructed on how to work in small groups as well.  Students should be familiar with working with maps, simple personal economics, and have rudimentary artistic and creative skills.  Students also need a solid foundation in writing, timelines/chronologies, and some public speaking skills. 

Curriculum Standards

Delaware State High School Social Studies Standards Covered:

Economics Standard One: Students will analyze the potential costs and benefits of personal economic choices in a market economy.

Geography Standard One: Students will develop a personal geographic framework, or "mental map", and understand the uses of maps and other geo-graphics.

Geography Standard Three: Students will develop an understanding of the diversity of human culture and the unique nature of places.

History Standard One: Students will employ chronological concepts in analyzing historical phenomena.

History Standard Two: Students will gather, examine, and analyze historical data.

History Standard Three: Students will interpret historical data.
 

In addition to helping students acquire the necessary skills needed to become familiar with the Delaware State Standards for graduation, this activity does stress a few other skills.  While working in groups of four, students need to work together as a cohesive unit, and in doing so, must share ideas, and communicate ideas openly and accurately.  This project tends to stress writing skills, as well as creative artistic skills.  Though students do not necessarily need to be good artists, they do need to employ the skills of creativity, organization, marketing, and personal financing.  This project also stresses the ability to use a computer as more than just a research tool; the group's final presentation will employ the use of a PowerPoint presentation. 
 
 

Process

Class:  Social Studies
Unit:  Immigration
Grade:  10th
Length of Time Needed:  Approx. one week (class time may be used, or it may be completely done out of class)
Presentation Length:  Approx. 20 minutes per group

Teacher's Notes in PURPLE

1. First, choose a group of four total students.   You may allow students to choose their own groups, or you may want to assign groups.  The advantage to assigning groups would be that you would be assured each group had someone that was strong in each of the areas needed to complete the assignment (including PowerPoint skills).
2. Each student must choose a role in the group.  Read the descriptions below to choose the role that suits you best:  Again, you may allow students to choose their own roles according to their personal strengths, or you may want to assign roles so that students will be forced to try something new.

     Geographer - The job of the geographer is to find information about the climate and physical features of your country.  Some of your work will include simple map work.  On these maps, you will be filling in some information that you will be finding includes the capital city and the largest cities, climate, several points of interest, and travel/flight information regarding your country.  Make sure that the map that the student is working with is large enough to fit all of the information that is required.  This may mean that you will have to photocopy and enlarge the map that they print out from the website.  Simple map skills, including how to create a key, need to be taught. 

     The Business Analyst - As the economist of the group, it will be your job to handle the money.  Your are going to be responsible for collecting data about the costs of flights, hotels, and meals, and creating three separate magazine ads to advertise the best options in each for our travelers.  The skills required here are simple personal finance economics.  Students may be confused with all of the numbers and planning involved with flights and hotels and restaurants, so teachers have to be available after school hours to help.  This segment involves a lot of analysis, and then when creating the three ads, a lot of creativity and art skills.  This is the most difficult task of the four, and should be graded accordingly. 

     Layout Artist - The job of the layout artist is to incorporate the information that the other three members of the group have researched into one comprehensive PowerPoint slide-show brochure (as shown in class) for your country.  You will be responsible for presenting this brochure to the class.  This member of the group must be computer literate, and if not, they will need to learn the PowerPoint computer program before completing their assignment.  You should be familiar with PowerPoint as well in order to troubleshoot for your students, and to accurately grade the project.
 
 

Variations

For any of the roles, all of the final products could become essay format papers, and the length and detail can be adjusted depending on the level of the students that you are teaching.  For the historian, the number of famous people, the number of facts for the timeline, and/or the types of current events needs can all be adjusted.  For the geographer, you may want to add or subtract cities, do more with longitude and latitude studies, or concentrate on the climate more.  The economists role may be adjusted in relation to the types or numbers of ads requested (or the specifics of the ads).  Lastly, for the layout artist, you may want to completely change the final project handed in altogether.  You may want a paper, a video, a straight ahead verbal presentation, a poster, or an actual brochure. 
 
 

Resources Needed

What's needed to implement this lesson? Some of the possibilities:

• Computers in the classroom, or access to a Computer Lab
• E-mail accounts for all students or the teacher for questions and help
• PowerPoint on a computer for presentations
• Atlases
• Poster board, coloring materials, and other art supplies

Evaluation

To evaluate each student, refer to the "Evaluations" section found on each individual "Roles" page.  This will give you an easy to follow checklist of things to look for when grading each individual student's performance.  The scale for each piece of information that is required ranges from a low of "0", to a high of "3", depending on what the student completes, and with the accuracy that they complete it.
 

Conclusion

This WebQuest will bring each of your students a little closer to understanding and appreciating the homelands from which many of the immigrants who settled the US in the early 20th century came from.  By reading about their histories, their foods and historical attractions, and their geographic features, hopefully they will begin to find a new respect for the people of Europe, our ancestors. 

Credits & References

An extensive list of Internet sites were used in creating this WebQuest.  Those sites can be found in the "Resources Needed" section of this page.  In addition to the web sites utilized, thanks needs to be given to Dr.Patricia Sine of the University of Delaware, without whom none of this would have been possible.  Thanks !!