Last modified on 22 December 2009, at 21:43

Life in the Open Ocean/Webquests/WebQuest Template 1



This document should be written with the student as the intended audience.

Write a short paragraph here to introduce the activity or lesson to the students. If there is a role or scenario involved (e.g., "You are a detective trying to identify the mysterious poet.") then here is where you'll set the stage. If there's no motivational intro like that, use this section to provide a short advance organizer or overview. Remember that the purpose of this section is to both prepare and hook the reader.

It is also in this section that you'll communicate the Big Question (Essential Question, Guiding Question) that the whole WebQuest is centered around.

The TaskEdit

The task could be a:

  • problem or mystery to be solved;
  • position to be formulated and defended;
  • product to be designed;
  • complexity to be analyzed;
  • personal insight to be articulated;
  • summary to be created;
  • persuasive message or journalistic account to be crafted;
  • a creative work, or anything that requires the learners to process and transform the information they've gathered.

If the final product involves using some tool mention it here.
Remember to link to all appropriate words in Wikipedia with the prefix w: Example: plankton

The ProcessEdit

To accomplish the task, what steps should the learners go through? Remember that this is addressed to the student so describe the steps using the second person.

  1. First you'll be assigned to a team of 3 students...
  2. Once you've picked a role to play....
  3. ... and so on.

Learners will access the on-line resources that you've identified as they go through the Process. You may have a set of links that everyone looks at as a way of developing background information, or not. If you break learners into groups, embed the links that each group will look at within the description of that stage of the process.

In the Process block, you might also provide some guidance on how to organize the information gathered. This advice could suggestions to use flowcharts, summary tables, concept maps, or other organizing structures. The advice could also take the form of a checklist of questions to analyze the information with, or things to notice or think about.


Describe to the learners how their performance will be evaluated. Specify whether there will be a common grade for group work vs. individual grades.


Put a couple of sentences here that summarize what they will have accomplished or learned by completing this activity or lesson. You might also include some rhetorical questions or additional links to encourage them to extend their thinking into other content beyond this lesson.

Credits & ReferencesEdit

List here the sources of any images, music or text that you're using. Provide links back to the original source. Say thanks to anyone who provided resources or help. List any books and other analog media that you used as information sources as well.


Put here name and other information about designers and authors of this webquest.

Based on a template from The WebQuest Page