Webquest

Destruction of the environment

Mrs. K. A. Casey Adlai E. Stevenson HS

Introduction

Destruction of the environment of which you live in is all too real of a reality that exists today. Within the Bronx you have several industrial areas such as Bathgate Industrial Park and Hunts Point the pour black smoke into the atmosphere along with buses, cars, and trucks that are regularly found on many of our local roads. In other regions of the world rain forests are wiped out in order build residential, commercial, or industrial areas. Currently you are an environmentally aware student in Mrs. Casey’s Regents Living Environment class. Your class has just started a unit on ecology. Today you will be reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Water pollution, air pollution, deforestation, and habitat destruction are some of the environmental issues you will come across while reading The Lorax. By using the steps of the science PPA and your environmental awareness you will form a task force to research and implement some solutions to one of the environmental problems you came across while reading The Lorax. When your group’s research is complete you will be presenting your findings as a power point presentation to your Regents Living Environment class, Mrs. Casey (teacher), Ms. Lewis (assistant principal of science), and Mr. Martori (principal).

Task

Your task force will consist of five members to create a power point presentation based upon the research conducted as a result of reading The Lorax. The group will be using the steps of the science PPA to gather information necessary to create an informative power point presentation addressing one of the environmental issues your group is concerned with upon completing the The Lorax.

Group 1: Air pollution

Group 2: Water pollution

Group 3: Deforestation

Group 4: Habitat destruction

By using a jigsaw each group member will be responsible for one part of the PPA in order to complete the assigned task in a timely manner.

Process

Your group will be using the steps of the science PPA to complete the assigned task. Each step of the science PPA has a worksheet that will be used to organize the gathered information necessary for completion of your task force’s assignment.

Member 1: Define the problem

Worksheet1

Member 2: Gathering Evidence

Worksheet 2

Member 3: Identify the causes

Worksheet 3

Member 4: Evaluation of an existing policy

Worksheet 4

Member 5: Develop a new policy that can be used to solve the existing problem

Worksheet 5

*Step 6: Selecting the best possible solution will be part of classroom discussion. The members of the class will vote on the best policy for each environmental issue upon hearing each of the four presentations.

**Be sure each group includes a title slide, a slide for each PPA step, information slides, a summary slide, and slide of websites used to supply the information applied to the presentation**

Resources

**Use the above resources to help get you started with your piece of the project. You will need to find two more websites on your own for a portion of your grade.

*** Make sure you indicate what websites you are using!!! Google, Yahoo, dog pile, etc… are not websites and are not acceptable as web sites!!! You may use these search engines to find acceptable websites.

Evaluation

Your group’s work will be graded using the following rubric

	1= Poor	2= Below Average	3= Average	4=Above Average	5=Excellent	TOTAL
Worksheet 1	Answers 1 question correctly	Answers 2 questions correctly	Answers 2 ½ questions correctly	Answers 3 questions correctly	Answers 4 questions correctly
Worksheet 2	Restating the problem	1 Source of data	2 Sources of data	3 Sources of data	4 Sources of data
Worksheet 3	Identifying 1 cause	Identifying 2 causes	Identifying 3 causes	Identifying 4 causes	Identifying 5 causes
Worksheet 4	Restating the problem	Answers 1 question correctly	Answers 2 questions correctly	Answers 3 questions correctly	Answer 4 questions correctly
Worksheet 5	Restating the problem	Proposing 1 sensible alternative	Proposing 2 sensible alternatives	Proposing 3 sensible alternatives	Proposing 4 sensible alternatives
Defining the Problem	Problem is not correctly defined	Problem is not clearly defined	Problem is defined	Problem is clearly defined	Problem is clearly defined and understood
Gathering Evidence	1 piece of evidence included	2 piece of evidence included	3 pieces of evidence included	4 pieces of evidence included	5 or more pieces of evidence included
Identifying the causes	1 cause identified	2 causes identified	3 causes identified	4 causes identified	5 or more causes identified
Evaluation of current policies	Policy of little relevance evaluated	1 Policy of relevance evaluated	2 policies of relevance evaluated	3 policies of relevance evaluated	4 or more policies of relevance evaluated
Development of new policies	Developing an irrelevant policy	Developing 1 new policy	Developing 2 new policies	Developing 3 new policies	Developing 4 or more policies
Works cited	Correctly lists 1 source of info	Correctly lists 2 sources of info	Correctly lists 3 sources of info	Correctly lists4 sources of info	Correctly lists 5 or more sources of info
Presentation length	Fewer than 10 slides	10-11 slides	12-13 slides	14-15 slides	16 or more slides
Group Oral Presentation	Poor presentation	Fair presentation Lacks more than 1 part of the power point	Fair presentation Lacks 1 part of the power point	Good presentation covers all parts of the power point	Excellent Presentation covers all parts of the power point in great detail
Total

5= Excellent 4= Above Average 3= Average 2= Below Average 1= Poor

Standards

New York City Performance Standards: Science

S4a Demonstrates an understanding of cause and effect

S4c Demonstrates an understanding of disease and epidemiology

S4d Demonstrates an understanding of the impact of technology

S4e Demonstrates an understanding of the impact of science

S5a Frames questions to distinguish cause and effect.

S5c Uses information from reliable sources to develop descriptions, explanations, and models

S5d Proposes, recognizes, analyzes, considers, and critiques alternative explanations

S5e Identifies problems; proposes and implements solutions; and evaluates the accuracy, design, and outcomes of investigations

S5f Works individually and in teams to collect and share information and ideas.

S6a Uses technology and tools to observe and measure objects, organisms, and phenomena; directly, indirectly, and remotely; with appropriate consideration of accuracy and precision

S6d Acquires information from multiple sources, such as print, the Internet, computer data bases, and experimentation

S7a Represents data and results in multiple ways, such as numbers, tables, and graphs

S7c Critiques published materials, such as popular magazines and academic journals

S7d Explains a scientific concept or procedure to other students.

S7e Communicates in a form suited to the purpose and the audience, such as by writing instructions that others can follow; critiquing written and oral explanations.

New York City Performance Standards: English

E6a The student critiques public documents with an eye to strategies common in public discourse, including citing of appropriate references or authorities.

E7a The student critiques functional documents with an eye to strategies common to effective functional documents, including: logic of the sequence in which the directions are given.

E7b The student produces functional documents appropriate to audience and purpose, in which the student: reports, organizes, and conveys information and ideas accurately.

New York City Performance Standards: Applied Learning

A3c The student uses word-processing software to produce a multi-page document

Conclusion

Upon the completion of this WebQuest your task force should be able to identify the seriousness of the environmental issue that was researched as well as some ideas of how to curb the damaging effects of the environmental issue. You should be able to evaluate existing policies pertaining to the problem you have explained and establish new policies to the expressed problem by using the data and research you have collected.