Migration
A Webquest for 5th Grade Inquiry
Throughout history, people have moved for many reasons.
This has changed us and the world.
Designed by Karen Choan
kchoan@amersol.edu.pe
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
Introduction
Hello 5th Graders!
You are here to look into why people have migrated.
You will also find and record some information about who, what, where, when, and how they
moved.
As you look at the stories of migration, you're going to skim and scan for information. At the
end, you'll have a mind map. Good luck and good hunting for treasure!! (Leave the trash
behind.)
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
Task
You will be working in groups of 3. Each person will have a different job. Read about each
job here, then talk in your group to decide who will do each one.
PUSH/PULL INVESTIGATOR
You need to be good at reading and inferring (figuring out) what made people leave where
they lived and what made them choose a new place to live.
FACT CHECKER
You need to skim and scan well. Your job is to find out and take notes on
 Who left – be detailed and specific
 Where these people were living – again, detailed and specific
 When they left
 How they left – how did they travel?
 How long did it take them?
 Where they went – detailed and specific
BACKGROUND DIGGER
You’re going to set up the mind map for your group, but you’re also going to research about
what was happening in the world while your migration was going on. You’ll be looking at
timelines and the library’s research sites and taking notes. You need to be good at searching.
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
PUSH/PULL INVESTIGATOR
FACT CHECKER
BACKGROUND DIGGER
EVERYBODY This is your first job
Now you're going to look at some of the migration events on this Webquest. Each of you, by
yourself, will make a list of 3 or 4 events to take back to your group. Look for articles that are
JUST RIGHT for you to read and use for the information you need. Don’t think about anyone
else in your group. Just find articles that are good for your job. That means you need to skim
and scan for the keywords for your job. Right now, stop and write down some keywords.
After looking at a few events, write down 3 or 4 with good information for you. Later, you and
your group will be agreeing on one migration event to focus on.
MIGRATION EVENTS
Remember that if you’re at home, you might have to LOG-IN to see these pages. The
school log-in is colegiofdr and the password is fdrlib.
Stone-age Migration
Africans in America
Leaving England to go to Australia in the 1850s
American Dust Bowl
(E) African Americans from South to North (you must use Internet Explorer for this link)
Germans to Minnesota
The Mormons Move West
Mormon Migration
Forced Native American Migration (start reading where it says Territorial Period)
Rural to Urban
Americans to Canada
(E) Chinese to Texas
(E) The Orphan Train
Modern Day Africans to America (click and listen to the article… you can still use Trash and Treasure)
Pilgrims from England
Opportunity in the West
Dutch Immigration to New York
German Immigration to Pennsylvania
Opportunity in Appalachia
Modern Immigration Out of Africa
Modern Movement Out of Big Cities
Move to Harlem
The Oregon Trail
Early Settlers in the US
Illegal Immigration Today
Legal and Illegal Immigration Today
Central and South Americans to the US
Once you have 3 or 4 events written down, see if everyone else in your group is ready to decide
on one migration event.
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
PUSH/PULL INVESTIGATOR
FACT CHECKER
BACKGROUND DIGGER
EVERYBODY This is your second job
MEET with your whole group. Pick one migration event. Pick an event that has good
information for ALL the jobs!! Listen to other people when they say an article will or won’t
work for them! Look at some articles together to see which has the best information for
everybody!!
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
PUSH/PULL INVESTIGATOR
This is your third job
Now go find your own computer, open up the link for your group’s event, and take notes!!
Make a bulleted list of what you find about the PUSH and PULL factors. There may be quite a
few… write down the interesting details. You can also go to
FDR Research Sites
if you want more information about your migration event. Consider using World Book or
SirsDiscoverer or netTrekker.
Write down your sources (get a Bibliography paper from your teacher).
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
FACT CHECKER
This is your third job
After your group chooses an event, you'll go to your own computer and open the article on
the event. Skim and scan for the following information. Your job is to research and take
bulleted notes on






Who left – be detailed and specific
Where these people were living – again, detailed and specific
When they left
How they left – how did they travel?
How long did it take them?
Where they went – detailed and specific
Make sure you write down your source (get a Bibliography paper from your teacher).
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
BACKGROUND DIGGER
This is your third job
You're going to start by getting your group’s mind map ready. Go to KIDSPIRATION (or
INSPIRATION) and make a center shape. Put the name of your
migration event there. Make shapes for
the rest of the information your group will
Where they went
be finding. Save to your own file.
Push Factors










How long it
took to travel
Push factors
Pull factors
Who left
Where these people were living
When they left
How they left
How long did it take them?
Where they went
Pull Factors
Name of
Migration Event
Background
and History
Background and History
Sources
How they left
When they left
Who left
Where they were
living
Sources:
Names of people
in your group
BACKGROUND DIGGER
This is your fourth job
Open up the link to your migration event. Scan for when it happened (the FACT CHECKER is
also looking for this information -- check to see if you agree). Write down the year or the range
of years.
Now skim and scan the article to see what was happening in the world at that time. There
may not be much there. But there may be some clues, like a reference to a war or a famous
person. Make a list of your clues, using a few treasure words.
Now go to the Timeline link to find out more about what was happening in the world at that
time. You have to be able to think and infer about dates and what might have been important to
the people who were migrating. If they moved in 1770, for instance, you might find something
in the timeline for 1748 - 1790. Use the different searches on the Timeline…. Events, or
Disasters or All Events. You'll make a bulleted list of what was going on in the world, using a
few treasure words. Make sure to include the year(s) of the event.
Timeline
Remember that you can go the Media Center Research page, to World Book or SirsDiscoverer
or netTrekker, to find out more about what was happening in history at that time. You should
be able to use some keywords from your Timeline search. Make a bulleted list, using treasure
words. Write down your sources (get a Bibliography paper from your teacher).
FDR Research Sites
______________________________________________________________________________
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
PUSH/PULL INVESTIGATOR
FACT CHECKER
BACKGROUND DIGGER
EVERYBODY This is your last job
MEET with your whole group. Check to see if everyone has done all their research and made
notes. Decide how to get it all on the mindmap the BACKGROUND DIGGER has already set
up. Think about spelling, organization and making sense to other people. Remember to write
down your sources. (You only need the title of the articles).
_____________________ ______________________ _____________________
Evaluation
You will be assessed as a group, using this rubric.
1
Teamwork
2
3
4
All members
All members All members
Some
of the group
of the group
of the group
members of
completed
completed
completed
the group did their jobs on
their jobs on their jobs on
not complete
time,
time, and
time, and
their jobs,
problems
solved
thought about
disagreements were solved
problems
how to
were common with teacher
independently
cooperate
help
Students did
not refer to
Webquest
Completeness
of Research directions and
did not use
Tasks
websites.
Tasks were
incomplete.
Student
Student
Student used
needed some looked back the Webquest
reminders of at directions independently,
Webquest
on the
and used all
directions and Webquest for the relevant
used some of
guidance,
websites. As a
the websites. used most of
result, tasks
Some of the the websites
were
tasks were
and
completed.
Score
complete.
Grammar,
Organization
of Mind Map,
Spelling
The final
assignment
has major
errors in
grammar,
organization,
and spelling.
completed
most of the
tasks.
The final
The final
The final
assignment
assignment assignment is
has 6-10
has 1-5 errors free of errors
errors in
in grammar,
in grammar,
grammar,
organization, organization,
organization, and spelling. and spelling.
and spelling.
Student could Student could Student could Student could
not identify
converse
converse
converse and
facts
or
about
a
few
about
display deep
Understanding
Push/Pull
facts or
significant
knowledge
of
factors
factors to do
facts and
about their
the Migration
with their
factors to do
migration
Event
migration
with their
event
event
migration
event
Sources
No sources
are listed
Students have
Students have
Students have listed all their
a clear and
an incomplete
sources,
complete list
list of sources missing some
of sources
information
Conclusion
Finding out about other people’s lives is one way of understanding our own lives. And finding
out world history is one way of feeling like a citizen of the world.
 What else might you want to know about a particular migration? Think of some of your
own questions and skim and scan other links above for the information.
 Interested in who is migrating today? Look here:
DE Streaming
Put “immigration” in the Search box, and choose “DE Streaming” and “Video Segment”
from the dropdown menus. Watch the short videos that come up.
Credits & References
Thanks to WebQuest for the template and start of a rubric.
The WebQuest Page
Thanks to QuestGarden for the collaboration page.
QuestGarden
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. On the line after the original author's name, please add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do
modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.