What makes a city thrive? WebQuest

What makes a city thrive?
Teacher Notes
Outside Links
Influences

A WebQuest on Predicting the Future.
An adventure in the study of the development of cities and the geographic factors that influence them.

Introduction

Wouldn't it be fun if you could predict the future? Imagine what you could do with this ability! Well in the business world, some people make money by providing a smart guess about what might happen in the future. These fortune tellers use information about what has happened before in one situation to predict what might happen in another situation in the future. With this activity, you will get to be such a fortune teller and learn a little about how they do it!

Quest
Fortune teller, here is your quest!

You are a Vice President for the House Company. The House Company builds houses and sells them to families like yours. The House Company has decided to expand into another city. You and the members of your team are going to investigate a particular city where the House Company might start up another branch of their company. You need to do some research to see if people would like to go live there. Your group will need to investigate the physical characteristics of your city (such as mountains and lakes). Then you will decide whether or not these characteristics are desirable. You will then report back to the company's board of directors on what you discovered about the city, what your opinion is on the city, and if you recommend that the House Company starts building houses in that city.

Resources

This WebQuest takes advantage of numerous interesting online resources. Check out the list of these resources!

Directions

As you complete this WebQuest, you and your team will be seeking answers to the following questions:

There is an activity for you to complete for each of these questions. The directions for these activities follow. Remember what you have learned about reading to perform a task as you work on these activities. You may want to print them out so it is easy to refer to them as you work at the computer. You can highlight or underline main points on your paper copy of the directions.

Grading

Some final products will be essays while others may be electronic slide shows or posters. Regardless, the final products will be evaluated on:

How well it persuades
Understanding of content
Correct capitalization, usage of words, punctuation and spelling (CUPS)
Clarity and appropriateness of the visuals (maps, graphs, and pictures) you selected.

Here are how these criteria will be evaluated. The points for "How well it persuades" and "Correct capitalization, usage and words, punctuation, and spelling (CUPS)" are based on scoring guidelines from the Baltimore County Writing Resource Guide.

Area	1	2	3
How well it persuades:	Rarely or never addresses the board of directors' needs. Ideas are often disorganized. The language or images selected seldom if ever enhance the message.	Sometimes addresses the board of directors' needs. Ideas are incomplete or partially developed. Sometimes arguments are supported. Sometimes the language or images selected enhance the message.	Consistently addresses the board of directors' needs. Ideas are organized into a well developed whole. Arguments are supported. Language and/or images selected enhance the message.
Understanding of Content	Shows incomplete understanding or misconceptions about landforms, waterways, soil, vegetation or climate. Rarely or never relates these ideas to how they influence the development of cities.	Demonstrates a general understanding of some geographic factors. Identifies some geographic factors of the chosen city. Sometimes relates the geographic factors to the development of cities.	Demonstrates thorough understanding of how geographic factors influence the development of cities; Factors selected are key factors for the chosen city; Consistently, explains how the factors influence the development of cities.
Correct capitalization, usage of words, punctuation and spelling (CUPS)	Rarely or never is organized to express meaning with style or tone. Text is error ridden.	Sometimes is organized to express meaning with style and tone. Text general uses correct usage, punctuation, spelling and capitalization.	Organized to express meaning with style and tone. Consistently uses correct usage, punctuation, spelling and capitalization.
Clarity and appropriateness of the visuals (maps, graphs, and pictures) you selected	Visuals are rarely or never used and where they are found they are either unclear, irrelevant or distract from the message.	Some good visuals are included but some of the visuals are either are hard to interpret, don't relate to the message, or detract from the message.	Visuals are interesting, easy to see, and help get the point across. Visuals do not detract from the message.

Conclusion

You have completed a complex task, similar to one that adults do in the working world. You should be proud of your accomplishments.

You may have already discovered that growth of cities is influenced by other things than just geographic factors. For example economic factors are important as well. You may wish to research this on your own.

Our focus has been on how people are influenced by their environment, but you may have been thinking that people also influence their environment. You may wish to research this idea on your own as well.

By now you probably have found that people are influenced by their environment in complex ways and that the geographic factors that we studied (landforms, waterways, soil, vegetation, and climate) also influence each other. In many systems, different factors influence each other. You may wish to explore other systems (such as computer systems, political systems, or school systems) and see how they are like and different from environmental systems.

Hope you had fun as well!

Based on a template from The Webquest Page.
Last updated June 30, 2004
Your comments are welcome. E-mail them to Kathy Benson.
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Developed during the Maryland Technology Academy
My thanks to everyone at the Maryland Technology Academy and my principal at Relay Elementary School, Dr. Skarbek for making my participation in this academy possible.