Web Quest for 2nd Grade

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What are Whales?
Web Quest for 2nd Grade (About
Mammals) Designed by Shannon San
Bento     Based on a template from San Diego
State Universitys The Web Quest Page
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This lesson was developed as part of the
elementary science methods course at Roger
Williams University in Bristol , Rhode Island.
For this Web Quest, students are
asked to be whale watchers. They are asked by
the captain and crew of a whale watching boat to
research whales on the Internet and in the
appropriate books in the classroom. They are to
find out how whales are similar to humans and
create an ABC Book. This book will enable them
to teach the rest of the class the
characteristics to answer the question, Why are
whales mammals?
Why is a Whale a Mammal?
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Learners This lesson is targeted for Second
Grade Science. This lesson should be integrated
in a unit teaching students about mammals. 5. 
THE LIVING ENVIRONMENT Several areas related to
The Living Environment have received considerable
research attention over recent years. These
include student meanings of the terms animal,
plant, and living students' ideas about plant
nutrition and their understanding of genetics
and natural selection. Research has focused on
what students understand about the living
environment at isolated points in time or on how
this understanding evolves naturally in students.
Research on instructional interventions that
improve students understanding is limited. 5a
Diversity of Life Classification of organisms
Some research indicates that in 2nd grade there
is a shift in children's understanding of
organisms from representations based on
perceptual and behavioral features to
representations in which central principles of
biological theory are most important. Children at
this age can begin to understand that animals of
the same species have similar internal parts and
offspring. When asked to group certain organisms,
lower elementary-school students form groups of
different statusfor example, organisms that are
able to fly and organisms that fight each other.
Upper elementary-school students tend to use a
number of mutually exclusive groups rather than a
hierarchy of groups. Some groups are based on
observable features others on concepts.
Meaning of the word "animal"Elementary- and
middle-school students hold a much more
restricted meaning than biologists for the word
"animal. For example, most students list only
vertebrates as animals. Elementary- and
middle-school students use such criteria as
number of legs, body covering, and habitat to
decide whether things are animals. High-school
students frequently use attributes that are
common to both plants and animals (e.g.,
reproduction and respiration) as criteria.
Because upper elementary-school students tend not
to use hierarchical classification, they may have
difficulty understanding that an organism can be
classified as both a bird and an animal.
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• Curriculum Standards
• National Science Education Standards
• Life Science
• CONTENT STANDARD CAs a result of activities in
  grades K-4, all students should develop
  understanding of
• The characteristics of organisms
• Organisms have basic needs. For example, animals
  need air, water, and food plants require air,
  water, nutrients, and light. Organisms can
  survive only in environments in which their needs
  can be met. The world has many different
  environments, and distinct environments support
  the life of different types of organisms.
• Each plant or animal has different structures
  that serve different functions in growth,
  survival, and reproduction. For example, humans
  have distinct body structures for walking,
  holding, seeing, and talking.
• The behavior of individual organisms is
  influenced by internal cues (such as hunger) and
  by external cues (such as a change in the
  environment). Humans and other organisms have
  senses that help them detect internal and
  external cues.
• Life cycles of organisms
• Benchmarks for Science Literacy
• A. Diversity of Life By the end of 2nd grade,
  students should know that
• Some animals and plants are alike in the way they
  look and in the things they do, and others are
  very different from one another.
• Plants and animals have features that help them
  live in different environments.
• Stories sometimes give plants and animals
  attributes they really do not have.

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Curriculum Standards (continued) English
Language Arts Standards Standard 4. Gathers and
uses information for research purposes
Level   I   Grade  K-2  1. Uses a variety
of sources to gather information (e.g.,
informational books, pictures, charts,
indexes, videos, television programs, guest
speakers, Internet, own observation) Standard 7.
Uses reading skills and strategies to understand
and interpret a variety of informational texts
  Level   I   Grade  K-2   1. Uses reading
skills and strategies to understand a variety of
informational texts (e.g., written directions,
signs, captions, warning labels, informational
books)   2. Understands the main idea and
supporting details of simple expository
information   3. Summarizes information found in
texts (e.g., retells in own words)   4. Relates
new information to prior knowledge and experience
Standard 8. Uses listening and speaking
strategies for different purposes  Level   I  
Grade  K-2   1. Makes contributions in class
and group discussions (e.g., reports on ideas and
personal knowledge about a topic, initiates
conversations, connects ideas and experiences
with those of others)   2. Uses different voice
level, phrasing, and intonation for different
situations (e.g., small group settings, informal
discussions, reports to the class)   3. Uses
level-appropriate vocabulary in speech (e.g.,
number words words that describe people, places,
things, events, location, actions synonyms,
antonyms homonyms, word analogies, common
figures of speech) 
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The Process For the students Step 1 Research
the many types of whales, by clicking on the
links to whale websites and looking in books in
the classroom. On paper, make a list of the
whales, then write down how they are just like
you.Step 2 Are whales fish or like humans?
Complete a Venn diagram to show what you have
learned. Step 3 Were you surprised that there
were two types of whales toothed and baleen?
Both types have many things in common, but they
are unique as well. Learn about each group and
then write a short paragraph describing the ways
they are alike and the ways they are different.
You may want to create a Venn diagram as a
graphic organizer for this .Step 4 The crew of
the whale watching boat have asked that you
create an ABC book to share with your classmates.
Using your Venn diagrams to write essays for your
book, include interesting facts about whales,
their behaviors, and body structure. You are
expected to use the information you have gained
from the steps above. Be creative and colorful!
Step 5 When your ABC book is finished, read
your book orally to the rest of the class.

Creating your ABC Book                
                            Select two letters
from the ABC bucket, located at the front of the
classroom. Create a paragraph for each letter
using a keyword that starts with that letter.
(use the information you found during your
research) Put the essays you wrote in your
book. (Refer to steps 2 and 3) Create an
informative illustration to go with each
paragraph. You may diagram and label. For the
Teacher This lesson should be taught over the
course of a week long unit on Whales. Students
can work on their own or in groups of two to do
the research, then work independently on their
writing of the ABC book. A variety of books and
websites from this web quest need to be provided
for the students. Books should vary according to
reading level and be appropriate for the age
level of the students. Make sure all of the
students know how to use the computer and
navigate a web quest to learn the appropriate
material to be able to write about how whales are
mammals, not fish. Students should know how to
create a Venn diagram. Students need to be
supplied with the appropriate materials pencil,
paper, staples, crayons and markers, books about
whales, and a computer.
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Some Resources Needed Learning About Whales
(Learning about Books (Dover)) by Sy Barlowe
(Paperback - Aug 8, 1997) Splash! A Book
About Whales And Dolphins (level 3) (Hello
Reader) (Paperback) by Melvin Berger, Gilda
Berger Scholastic Q A Do Whales Have
Belly Buttons? (Scholastic Question Answer) by
Melvin Berger Whales by Gail Gibbons
Discovering Whales and Dolphins (Learn-About
Books) by Janet Craig (School Library Binding -
Oct 1989) Accomodations One teacher with an
aid would be appropriate for this lesson. The
students are working independently or in groups
of two to do the research. Teachers can be work
as a guide to answer any questions. By this time
in second grade, students should be able to
research on the internet and in textbooks. For
special education students, the teachers aide
can work more closely with the group, and for ESL
students, have a resource teacher available to
help with the research. Have appropriate
grade-level books for all of the students in the
classroom.
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Evaluation of ABC Book
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Evaluation (continued)
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Conclusion Students will explore the Internet
and books in the classroom to learn more about
Mammals. Students will focus on Whales through
their research and learn about the many types of
whales, the similarities to humans, and why
Whales are mammals, NOT fish. During a unit
on mammals, second grade students will have fun
exploring the subject of Whales. This activity
enables them to navigate a web quest, research
various textbooks in the classroom, write essays
on two particular characteristics of whales, and
compare toothed vs. baleen and whales vs. humans.
They will present this information to the rest
of the class through an ABC Book. While each
student will write about two specific areas, the
entire class will learn the many ways Whales are
very similar to humans.
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Credits References Check out these
wonderful whale websites Endangered Whales Zoom
Whales World Wide Whales Whales on the Net Killer
Whales With special thanks, this web quest was
adapted from a third grade web quest about Whale
watching
The WebQuest Page