Sweeping the Swamps

A WebQuest for 3rd-4th Grade Science

Introduction:

Your father has just inherited five acres of swamp land in Water Valley, Mississippi. Your mother loves this location and wants to build her dream home as soon as possible. Your father can finally have a pond dug to raise catfish. Your family will hire a contractor to build their new home on this mud-ugly mosquito infested, swamp land, but your father has volunteered your services to help dig the fish pond.

The Tasks:

While navigating this WebQuest, you will learn many things about mosquitoes, the diseases they carry, and how these blood-thirsty insects nearly destroyed the population of Memphis, Tennessee. You will:

Discover the world of the mosquito.
Tell how mosquitoes pick their victims.
Understand what happens when a mosquito bites you.
Explore the various diseases commonly carried by mosquitoes.

The Process:

1. Ouch! that little band of pesky blood-loving mosquitoes just took a bite out of your arm. It is swelling and turning red as fire. You say you don't know much about mosquitoes! Grab a partner and take the mosquito challenge. Using 3x5 index cards write a short summary on the habits, habitats, and the diseases mosquitoes carry.
2. Is it that white tank top, the Big Mac you had at lunch, or your new strawberry scented bubble bath that is making you a mosquito magnet? Let's find out why you may be getting more than your fair share of love and devotion from these interactive insects. Make a collage using pictures of things that attract mosquitoes.
3. You decide to have a back- to- school pool party. While grilling the hot dogs and hamburgers, you are attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes. By visiting this page you will find out exactly what happens when those skeeters take a drink of your human juices. Complete this story detailing how you would treat those stinger bites.
4. Mosquitoes are little menaces that everyone loves to hate. Although they are small insects, they can do a lot of damage. Read about how These menacing monsters almost wiped out the entire population of the City of the Blues in the late 1800's with yellow fever epidemics. Write a two-page summary paper discussing the impact of the yellow fever epidemics on today's Memphis population.
5. Now that you have gathered all these skeeter bites of information, where can you put these precious keepsakes to share with your family and friends? Create a portfolio of all the things you have learned about mosquitoes. Examine the parts of a mosquito as you design your own drawing for your portfolio cover. Don't forget to print!

The Evaluation:

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
You will develop your knowledge of mosquitoes.	Describes very general characteristics of mosquitoes without knowledge of their habits, habitats, or diseases they carry	Describes some characteristics of mosquitoes and can give some information about their habits	Describes few characteristics of mosquitoes and gives few details about their habits, habitats, and diseases they carry	Describes several characteristics of mosquitos and gives solid details about their habits, habitats, and diseases they carry.
You can identify what attracts mosquitoes.	Realizes that mosquitoes are attracted to people only	Identifies some things that attract mosquitoes	Identifies many attract mosquitoes and can give a brief description of a mosquito breeding ground	Identifies several things that attract mosquitoes and can give full description of a mosquito breeding ground
You will develop the knowledge of how to treat mosquito stings.	Realizes that mosquitoes sting	Has little knowledge of properly treating mosquito stings	Can perform many of the procedures in the treatment of mosquito stings with some knowledge of the dangers associated with mosquitoes	Can fully perform all the procedures in the treatment of mosquito stings in sequence, and fully understands the dangers of mosquito stings
You will determine what impact the yellow fever epidemic had on the city of Memphis.	Paper contains no implications of the impact of the yellow fever on the city of Memphis	Paper contains some implications of the impact of yellow fever on the city of Memphis, but they are not clearly stated	Paper contains many fairly stated implications of the impact of yellow fever on the city of Memphis	Paper contains several clearly stated implications of the yellow fever impact on the city of Memphis.
You will identify parts of a mosquito.	Identifies only general parts of a mosquito	Identifies some distinct body parts of a mosquito	Identifies many distinct parts of a mosquito and can describe some of their functions	Identifies all the body parts, can describe their functions, and explain how a mosquito uses it stinger

Conclusion:

In completing this WebQuest you have invaded the world of the infamous mosquito. You should now be able to describe their unique characteristics, their habitats, and ways to protect yourself from the harmful diseases mosquitoes carry. Perhaps you now realize what dangers these insects can cause to human and animal life.

Credits & References:

Thanks to EnchantedLearning.com for the wonderful coloring page. And thanks to Chad Thompson and my supportive classmates in EDU 506. Last but not least, thanks to Dr. R. B. Lewis for his insightful expertise in creating such a relevant technological approach to computer education.

Teacher Advice:

This WebQuest was designed primarily for third and fourth grade science. It involves social studies and language arts to a lesser extent. This WebQuest could easily be adapted to additional grades and subject areas.

Starting with an interactive informational website about mosquitoes, this lesson involves gathering data about mosquitoes, their habitats, and the detriment they can cause to society. This multi-disciplinary lesson should be presented in a time frame of several weeks in order for students to develop useful knowledge of the topic to create high quality work.

The novice teacher will need some Internet knowledge in order to fulfill the requirements of this lesson. The teacher will need to provide guidance and monitor students' abilities in navigating this WebQuest.

Created for EDU 506 @ FHU School of Education by Rita Dickerson on July 31, 2001.