WebQuest

What?

WebQuests are activities used by educators that allow their students to think, analyze, and work through information using different sites and resources from the Internet. This is a great way for students to work through things and discover content material on their own or in groups. This kind of discovery learning is more meaningful to the students. Because of the variety of information that is available online, WebQuests are very versatile and can be used for any content area. Using online interactives and games is also very fun and engaging for the students and can help keep their interest for topics that may otherwise be a little dull.

I think that I could use WebQuests in my mathematics classroom from time to time to break up the monotony of the traditional lecture style instruction. I think there are some great topics in math that the students could definitely discover and learn about on their own thru the use of a guided activity such as a WebQuest. I choose to do a WebQuest about the uses of mathematics in the real world so that I could use this during the first few days of class in order to help students to make connections and see the relevancies of the material we will be learning to the uses in their own lives.

So What?

This assignment has really helped me to branch out and find the other resources that are available to me and my students to make their learning a meaningful experience. I feel like this is a great assignment to help students use math in ways that are most like how they will use math after high school. Teaching my students to use technology, specifically the computer and the Internet in a safe and ethical way, is a very important aspect of my job as a teacher in these times. I feel that it is my responsibility to help them think through things and be able to logically reason through different problems so that they will be prepared for problems that they will encounter in their lives.

For this specific WebQuest, I feel that I’ve found some very good resources for my students to go through and find new information that they may not have thought about before. I was able to find several different interactives that will give them a chance to work with the math skills they previously have acquired and see how they are applied in the real world.

Now What?

Part of the reason why I wanted to be a teacher is to help others gain a love for math and see the possibilities that are out there using mathematics. For this reason, I choose to create a WebQuest that helps the students to see the bigger picture and see just where they are going with the different concepts that they will learn through their high school math experiences. Another reason that I wanted to create a WebQuest of this nature is because of the different interactives that are included that allow the students to see that not all math is boring and useless. They will also hopefully gain a greater appreciation for the different varieties of mathematics in the real world. I hope to accomplish these goals even further by always helping students to see the bigger picture and realize all the many applications that there are without completely overwhelming them.