Effective Instructional Models for Internet Use in High School

Effective Instructional Models for Internet Integration in the High School Curriculum

Julie Coiro, Jill Castek and Laurie Henry
University of Connecticut

Internet Workshop

Internet Project

Internet Inquiry

INTERNET INQUIRY Once your students have become familiar with locating Internet resources, Internet inquiry may be a useful means to develop independent research skills and allow students to pursue a question which holds a special interest for them. Internet Inquiry may be developed by small groups or by individuals. Inquiry units usually begin with students identifying a topic and a question that they find important. Internet Inquiry consists of five phases: Develop a question. Search for information. Evaluate the information. Compose an answer to your question. Share the answer with others. One of the most difficult components of this model is the first step: developing a question. This is a new way of involving students in their own learning. This, it will take time for students to feel confident in asking their own questions and for teachers to feel confident that there is more than one way to answer a question. Younger students are being introduced to the inquiry process as early as first grade. Units of learning are organized around central questions, teacher questions, student questions and family questions. Other examples with younger students include the Spider Inquiry Project and Bugscope. Examples of Inquiry Projects developed for older students include... Literacy: Why Does the Caged Bird Sing? Math: Gas Price History Science: The Fast Food Freeway to Diabetes Social Studies: Women's Suffrage
Try It Out The following sites were collected as examples of open-ended tools and topics within various content areas. Explore at least one of the websites below and construct a guiding thematic inquiry question that might serve to inspire students to develop personal inquiry investigations around a curriculum theme.
Language Arts and Literature American Writers: Journey Through History and American Writers: Through the 20th Century Museum of Television and Radio Career Profiles Wikipedia: The Free Encylopedia WebMuseum Beans Around the World Kids N' Fitness	Science National Doplar Radar Sites CIESE Online Classroom Projects focus on projects that utilize realtime data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world. Mad Science Network invites students of all ages to ask questions and explore science topics Explore Learning: Science Ocean Color Web NASA Challenge: Design a Martian The T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project Eartheasy: Environmentally Sustainable Living Bugscope
Math National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Math Create a Graph from NCES CyberSchoolBus Fun with Surveys Example CIA World Factbook Experiment and Explore Mathematics Equation of a Line Slope Intercept Form (Java applet) Graph It Graphing Calculator from CoolMath Explore Learning: Math Money Museum Fed 101: Federal Reserve Bank Activities Practical Money Skills for Students Statistical Abstract of the United States U.S. Budget Explorer	Social Studies American Memory from Library of Congress InfoPlease Almanac on History and Government New York Times Learning Network and Multimedia Collection CNN Learning Resource s features multimedia tools built into the interface to enable readers to access the text in multiple formats (audio, video, text-based). Includes electronic supports for skill practice and reinforcement. The Renaissance Connection Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century Women's Suffrage in 20th Century America Kids Count Data includes Data Book 2003: Index of child well-being used to rank states Census Data 2000: Indicators of child well-being released by the 2000 U.S. Census Right Start Data 1990-2000 covers prenatal, at-birth and maternal characteristics County, City, Community-Level Information on Kids: State - specific inventories of data.
Other Inquiry Resources What is Inquiry? Internet Inquiry by Don Leu at the University of Connecticut. How to develop an Inquiry Project from YouthLearn.org Enhancing the Problem Solving Process with Technology by Julie Coiro at the University of Connecticut. Information Inquiry for Teachers by Annette Lamb, a professor at Indiana University, introduces the 8 W's of Inquiry including Watching, Wondering, Webbing, Wiggling, Weaving, Wrapping, Waving and Wishing Online Research Modules and The Research Cycle and Questioning Toolkit developed by Jamie McKenzie Web Inquiry Projects from San Diego State University

Other Online Tools