Difficulties Implementing a Web Based PBL: Insight into Atomic
Theory taught via a WebQuest
Muhsinah L. Holmes
Emory University
Abstract
To foster student driven learning I developed a Web Quest that can teach
atomic theory to a high school chemistry class. This Web Quest allows
students the opportunity to examine the worlds of notable scientists that have
contributed throughout time to the foundation of chemistry with their theories
of atomic structure.
The students’ job is to defend the work of these
scientists, keeping them a part of science history. The Web Quest itself not
only gives the student the assignment but also takes them through a brief
introduction to Atomic Theory. This independent activity can harbor serious
challenges for the teacher and/or facilitator of this case, but the results are
well worth the effort. Technological difficulties are one of the limiting factors
that hinder this particular type of case. Internet ready computers are a
precious resource that few students may have access to, especially at home.
This project permits the students to defend the scientific ideas and beliefs
based on concrete evidence and principles. It explores ethical standards of
performing research and allows the students to become knowledgeable about
government agencies that regulate scientific research.
Proper network
support at the schools, availability of an internet ready computer at home,
supplies for each student to complete all student products would make
implementing this case easier but there are more unexpected hurdles to
overcome than this. Ways to implement this case smoothly in your classroom
will be outlined and examples will be shared.
Background
Students often complain that atomic theory is too abstract and uninteresting; therefore I
developed an Atomic Theory WebQuest to enhance the overall learning experience of
the students. During this WebQuest, the students examine the worlds of notable
scientists that have contributed somewhat varying theories regarding atomic structure
throughout time. The students’ job is to defend the work of these scientists, keeping
them a part of science history. This WebQuest adds a modern twist to what seems like
ancient history for the students. They are assigned roles like historian and biographer;
affixing an element of reality to the scientists. They are allowed to contemplate how the
lives of these scientists shaped their successes and failures within their respected fields.
This lesson not only addresses the premises of atomic theory, but also ethical
standards, the scientific process and the evolution of theories. “The more meaningful,
the more deeply or elaboratively processed, the more situated in content, and the more
rooted in cultural, background, metacognitive, and personal knowledge an event is, the
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more readily it is understood, learned, and remembered.” (Iran-Nejad, McKeachie, and
Berliner, 1990) This Atomic Theory WebQuest refines the student’s critical thinking
skills. The defense team model promotes cooperative learning. It is also an authentic
alternative to accessing the students’ knowledge of atomic theory. Furthermore,
professional skill with technological applications is obtained.
In an age where technology is all around us, it is necessary to design a curriculum
driven towards producing information literate students. The 1989 Final Report of the
American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy states
that, “information literate people are those who have learned how to learn. They know
how to learn because they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information,
and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them.” (ACRL,
2003) Raizen, Sellwood, Todd, and Vickers (1995) suggest that technological literacy
must include a wide range of opportunities for students to interact with a variety of tools
and resources in order to develop a level of competence that will allow them to use
technology effectively and productively in the workplace.
A WebQuest provides a techno logy-based forum in which students can develop
information literacy. WebQuests are inquiry-oriented activities in which learners interact
with information that primarily comes from resources on the Internet. A WebQuest is
divided into sections, which guide the student through a process that enhances their
information literacy. These sections include an introduction, task, process, information
sources, guidance and a conclusion (Dodge, 1997).
Critical thinking, cooperative
learning, authentic assessment and technology integration are the most effective
instructional practices, which become integrated into one defined activity in a
WebQuest.
The Atomic Theory WebQuest
Throughout the WebQuest the student is lead through a process, which meet the criteria
for information literacy. In the introduction, the situation is explained and the ability to
recognize the need for further information is initially targeted. The students are told that
their team has been chosen to represent one of the significant scientists who contributed
to the current ideas surrounding atomic theory. These men have been accused by the
International Foundation of Scientific Theory on CNN to be pseudoscientists and that
their work, while it led to the current theory and is the basis of the periodic table and how
we classify all elements, is false. It is your team’s duty to defend your client’s theory in
front of the Grand Science Council at a public forum. The names of the clients are
presented next. There are seven clients including Democritus, the Greek philosopher,
and Erwin Schrodinger, the physicist. By exploring this wide range of scientists through
history, the students begin to appreciate that scientific discoveries evolve over time and
blurs subject area boundaries.
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Figure 1. Spiral Through Time. The student leaps through time to the year 2066, where
he or she is presented with the preliminary information needed to complete this
WebQuest.
Since this is a group activity, roles are assigned to each member of the defense team.
Therefore, everyone in the group is required to make a contribution to the overall
project. The next web page tells them the tasks that are to be performed and by whom.
There are 5 roles, a chemist, critic, paparazzi, biographer/psycho logist, and a historian.
The chemist is responsible for the chemical concepts that shape their client’s theory.
The paparazzi gathers photographs from the era of the scientist and the critic looks for
opposing views and theories from others during the client’s time of discovery. The
biographer/psychologist investigates the life of the client bearing in mind how his lifestyle
helped shape him into the scientist that he was. The historian reminds us of where we
were on the technology timescale at the time of discovery, highlighting the extent of
resources available to the scientist.
Even though they have different roles, each student in the group is responsible for
knowing everything. Thus, each person has to verbally share their information with their
group in a clear and concise manner so that the research compiled and presented to
one another accurately reflects the area studied by that character. Each group member
thoroughly researches his/her subject, and after sorting through all the information
available, synthesizes it into an insightful section that is included in the final
presentation.
Next, the students encounter instructions for a three-part assignment to include written,
oral and visual components. The first expectation is that the students create a
presentation that highlights every area that was researched by group members. In this
presentation they must demonstrate a visual model of the client’s famous work. This
model becomes one of the 3 pieces of evidence that the defense team will submit to the
Grand Science Council. They are also to submit a scrapbook, the 2nd piece of
evidence, that mimics a journal or newsletter that would have been disseminated to the
public about the client’s scientific discovery during his time. The format is deliberately
open, allowing for student creativity.
The third piece of evidence showcases an
element that significantly supports the client’s theory. The winning of the Nobel Prize is
just one of many elements that can add more credibility to the theory developed through
the scientist’s experimentation.
The students are shown how they will be assessed for this assignment. They are given
the rubric so that they can see how the presentations will be evaluated and what is
expected from them in terms of neatness, creativity and accuracy. The research topics
are called, ‘learning issues” and these are to be reported in a specific format. This
format requires that the students not only acquire facts about their topic/issue, but that
they cite and evaluate the references. Examples of learning issues include, “What is a
pseudo-scientist?”, “Is pseudoscience an authentic branch of science like chemistry?”,
“What government agencies regulate the research being done in labs?”, “Is there a
Grand Science Council or an International Foundation of Scientific Theory?”.
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Implementation
This WebQuest was implemented in a high school Advanced Chemistry class of 10th
and 11th grade students. The entire lesson was completed within 3 class sessions with
one week between each session. During the first class session, the students were
introduced to the website. There is not a wireless network in this particular school,
which would have been ideal, so I utilized the technology that we did have in the
classroom. Although there is a computer lab that we could have used, it is more difficult
to accommodate group work under such a restricted layout. Therefore, the teacher’s
computer, which had Internet capabilities and is connected to a projector, allowed the
entire classroom to experience the WebQuest together. Each student received a printed
copy of the entire WebQuest so that they can follow along and have all of the necessary
instructions in front of them. As we navigated through each page, students generated
learning issues to research.
In addition to the WebQuest, I created an online timeline of atomic theory following the
WebQuest instructions. The student is introduced to this as a primary resource of the
WebQuest. In the introduction, the molecular structure hypothesis is defined and then
slightly discounted because it does not relate directly to quantum mechanics. As the
student continues to read, he learns that even though JJ Thomson was a
“laughingstock” once his theory was disproved, he and all of the other scientists have
allowed chemists to see the world from a smaller viewpoint-the Molecular level. At this
point the student probes through the online timeline of subsequent web pages. There
are links throughout this WebQuest Resource that lead to more detailed information
about the scientist and/or model. This resource was strategically placed immediately
following the WebQuest in an effort to direct the students’ search on the World Wide
Web and to show them carefully selected, prescreened sites with pertinent information
on them. This sort of addition to the WebQuest eliminates some of the unnecessary
surfing of unrelated websites for the bulk of their acquired information.
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Figure 2: Exhibit A. These scrapbooks are just a few samples of the type of effort and
creativity the students put into producing these products. The article on (A.) Ernest
Rutherford was stained to demonstrate the yellowing of the paper over time and the
newsletter about (B.) James Chadwick was burned on the edges and includes the Top
Five Songs Requested in 1932.
Challenges/Lessons
The challenges in implementing a WebQuest in a class can stem from the type of
network support that a school has. Schools often have a non-redundant network
infrastructure. Adding redundancy, duplicating WAN links, in the network infrastructure
would allow for maximum uptime and continuous availability. Most clients are set up
with only one default gateway, which is a major problem. If that default gateway goes
down, that client (and probably the entire segment) will lose connectivity (Switching
Redundancy 2004). It is relatively easy to make a network infrastructure redundant so if
one link fails, the routing software recalculates the routing algorithm and begins sending
all traffic through another link. This allows applications to proceed in the face of WAN
link failure, improving application availability (Alliance Datacom, 2004). However, the
disadvantage of duplicating WAN links to each remote office is the high cost.
Moreover, it is imperative to make use of the resources within the school. The
teacher/facilitator of the Quest should build solid relationships with the school’s
information technology coordinator and the media specialist. These relationships help
foster an effective and technologically-balanced-student-driven atmosphere. Lack of
computer skill on the part of the teacher can also be a barrier to overcome. The
launching of a WebQuest can bring trepidation to many educators who are not
technologically inclined.
Personal tutorials may be necessary and are strongly
encouraged for the first time web page author. It will make a tedious, sometimes
frustrating process seem less overwhelming. The impact of this lesson can be severely
impaired because of a student’s limited access to the Internet and other technological
tools. By maintaining communication with the media specialist and technology director,
a community of support is developed for the student. In addition, the librarian can better
prepare for the potential problems that arise in the midst of the case. He or she can also
compile a list of other resources that are not commonly utilized for a more thorough
search for information.
In preparation for the final presentation, students use
multimedia-authoring tools like Microsoft PowerPoint, Publisher and FrontPage. Having
a team of specialists that are aware of the technological needs of the students enhances
this learning experience further.
Activities such as this WebQuest integrated across the curriculum, develop technology
competence and communication skills that lead to the development of information
literate students. The standards that define information literate students focus on
accessing, evaluating, and using information efficiently, competently, accurately, and
creatively (Hughes Hassell 2001). The students are motivated by the WebQuest to
access information, evaluate its content, and to develop and communicate creative
presentations based on the information.
Though technologically challenging to
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implement within the classroom, this activity is a meaningful way to enhance students’
information and science literacy.
References:
ACRL Information Literacy Web Site. (2003) Introduction to Information Literacy: What is
Information
Literacy?
[On-line].
Available:
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlissues/acrlinfolit/infolitoverview/introtoinfolit/introinfolit.htm
[Accessed April 28, 2004.]
Alliance Datacom, L.P. (2004) Cisco: Internetworking Design Basics [On-line].
Available:
http://www.alliancedatacom.com/manufacturers/ciscosystems/framerelay_design/design_basics.asp [Accessed April 27, 2004.]
Dodge, B.
(1997). Some thoughts about WebQuests [On-line].
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/about_WebQuests.html [Accessed
2004.]
Available:
April 23
Hughes-Hassell, S. (2001) Enhancing Student Learning with
Technology. In S. Hughes-Hassell & A. Wheelock, (Eds.), The Information-Powered
School. (pp.74-82). Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 74-82.
Iran-Nejad, A., McKeachie, W.J., & Berliner, D.C.
(1990). The multisource nature of learning:
research, 60, 509-515.
An introduction.
Review of educational
Raizen, S., Sellwood, P., Todd, R., & Vickers, M.
(1995). Technology education in the classroom. San Francisco, CA:
Publishers.
Jossey-Bass
Switching
Redundancy
(2004)
[On-Line].
Available:
http://www.clankiller.com/cisco/reference/HSRP/index.php [Accessed April 27, 2004.]
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Watson, K.L. (1999) WebQuests in the Middle School Curriculum: Promoting
Technological
Literacy
in
the
Classroom.
[On-line].
Available:
http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/jul99/WebQuest/index.html [Accessed April 23, 2004.]
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the students at Stephenson High School in
Stone Mountain, GA for their participation in the implementation of this PBL, Ms. Doris
Goodley and Dr. Stephanie May, the chemistry teachers I worked with, Leah Anderson
(PRISM Fellow) for modifying the WebQuest and implementing it in her classroom,
Christopher Morris (Network Design Engineer-BellSouth) for his expertise regarding
network infrastructure and the NSF-PRISM Staff and Fellows at Emory University for
their overwhelming show of support, advice and encouragement.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Award #DGE0231900.
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