Web Quest Evaluation

The web quest will be evaluated as follows:

Students are graded 1 - 5 (according to the Finnish grading system).

They are graded on
1. the results which they present in their power point presentation
2. the way of presenting (Style of powerpoint slide e.g. is it well readable? Does it include all relevant points? And the way of presenting e.g. how do the students talk? How well are they prapared)

Grade	Assessment
5	- the results include all the parts asked for in the task - the presented results are logic and authentic - the student was able to find all information he/she wanted to find - the written communication piece is correct and according to the standards of german written communication, the reply includes answers for the questions the student asked - it is noticable that the student has dealt with the problem and put effort in solving the task, even if there were difficulties, the achieved results are extr-ordinary - the power point presentation is visually attractive, logic and includes all relevant points (but only important key points) - the audience can follow the presentation easily - the student speaks freely and fluently (no reading ) in a clear and understandable voice and does not need the reminder most of the time
4	- the result include all the parts asked for in the task - the presented results are authentic - the student has found most of the information he/she wanted to find - the written communication piece is correct, the reply includes answers to the questions asked - the student has dealt with the problem and achieved an very good results - the power point presentation is visually attractive - the audience can follow the presentation - the students speaks mostly freely and fluently most of the time in a clear voice and needs the reminder notes only seldom
3	- the results include most of the parts asked for in the task - the presented results are authentic to some extend - the student was able to find most of the information he/she wanted to find - the written communication piece is understandable, the reply includes most of the information the student wanted to get - the student has dealt with the problem and achieved good results - the power point presentation is well visible and includes most of the relevant points - the audience can follow the presentation mostly - the students speks with the help of reminder notes, fluently and in a clear voice
2	- the results include some of the parts asked for in the task - the presented results lack authenticity in some parts - the student was able to find some of the information he/she wanted to find - the written communication piece is not clear in all parts, the reply does not comply to what was asked - the student has dealt with the problem but the results are not sufficient - the power point presentation lacks visual attractivity - the audience has problems to follow the presentation - the students speaks with the help of notes, the language lacks fluency and clearity
1	- the results only include few of the parts asked for in the taks - the presented results are mostly not authentic - the students was not able to find information he/she wanted to find - the written communication piece is not correct and difficult to understand - the student has not dealt with the problem sufficiently - the power point lacks visual attractivity in all parts - the audience cannot follow - the student is not able to express what he/she wants to say

Web Quest - A Trip to Germany

Web Quest - A trip to Germany

- Making an itenerary

- Make a budget

- Get information on REAL flights and REAL hotels/accomodation possibilities

Introduction

This web quest is designed for high school (lukio) students or students of univiersities of applied sciences (amk) with advanced German skills or who are studying German for a special purpose (e.g. business German or German for toursim). 

The aim is to fully plan and organize a trip to Germany, planning an itenerary, finding flights from Finland to Germany, finding hotels and interesting places to visit. Furthermore the students are asked to make a budget plan in which they plan their expenses for the trip (flights, hotels, domestic travelling, entrance fees etc.).

The aim is to make the student comfortable working with authentic material, use the required web pages in German and find authentic information.

A part of the task also requires actual authentic communication, getting information from a German tourist office or other place.

Task

Your task is to plan a trip to Germany. You can choose your destination and travel dates freely. The only requirement is that the trip has to take place in summer 2011 and should last for a week (7 days).

You have to plan a flight, your destinations and find accomodation at those destinations for the required number of nights. You should plan one trip to a place of interest or event and present that place/event. The task also requires communication with for example a tourist office at the place of destination, asking for information (this can be whatever you would like to find out). The communication should be by e-mail. You should make a rough budget plan including the flight prices, pirces for accomodation and for example entrance fees to the place of interest you would like to visit.

Your results are to be presented as a powerpoint in class.

This task is supposed to be fun so don’t take too much stress on it! Consider your own interests and wishes for your very own trip. Where would you like to go? What would you like to see and do? Maybe you can do that very trip someday!

You can work individually or in pairs. Whatever you feel comfortable with. Please do not work in bigger groups. Two people is the maximum!

Now get started and have fun with it!

Process

1.     make a schedule (day of departure and return)

2.     decide on where you want to go and to which airport you want to fly. Find an airline. It should be a German airline or an airline that offers the web site in German
Here are some suggestions:
Places of destination: Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich
Airlines: Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.de), AirBerlin (www.airberlin.com) also Ryan Air is possible (www.ryanair.com/de)

3.     decide how you want to continue from your airport of destination. Do you want to stay in the city than check www.frankfurt.de, www.berlin.de, www.muenchen.de or do you want to travel to some other place?

4.     When you have made up your mind about the final destination, find out what is interesting about the area/town you go to.

5.     Find out how you can get around to the places you want to go. You can check the airport’s web pages of Frankfurt, Berlin or Munich or wherever else you fly to get information on how to get around and the German train company www.db.de

6.     Find accommodation and find out the price for the room for the required number of nights and check availability (you might have to contact the hotel/accommodation place for prices and availability. This could be your piece of written communication already)

7.     Find a place of interest or event that you want to visit (e.g. museum, park, concert, theatre etc.). Find out the price for it.

8.     Think what your piece of written communication can be (e.g. hotel/accommodation place, ask for information from a tourist office etc.)

Your presentation should include:

- your travel information (travel dates and times, place of departure, place of destination, prices)

- your final destination(s) (name(s) of the place(s), web page, name and address of accommodation(s) and web address (if available), price for accommodation

- at least one trip to place of interest/event, describe place/event and give prices

- at least one piece of written communication (e-mail) and (hopefully) an answer

Please note:

Of course getting information from tourist offices or hotels is non-binding, however, be careful not to accidentally make any binding bookings! The same is true as well for flights. It is possible to get flight information and prices without entering your personal data. Do not enter personal data or data of the school anywhere! For your written communication piece it should be enough to sign it with your name and e-mail address to receive an answer. Be careful using the web! If any page seems in any way suspicious to you do not continue using it or ask the teacher.

The Greenhouse Effect

a) general overview
- my sketch was very rudimentary as I do not know much about the greenhouse effect without preparing the topic
- consequently there was a lot to correct in my preliminary mental model of the greenhouse effect

b)do you know enough about the atmosphere

- the model was helpful to understand the greenhouse effect

c) main things effecting the phenomena
- the warmer it gets the more infrared photons there are
- if it is colder there is less greenhouse gases, with raising temperature the greenhouse gas contraction is raising
- clouds keep the greenhouse gases closer to the ground, so they do not get into the atmosphere

d)
gas concentration non - low temperature
gas concentration high - high temperature
1750 and today - different composition of greenhouse gases, today more Co2, CH4 and N2O than in 1750

Model Based Teaching and Learning

What kinds of models are mentioned in the article and what is their role in learning?

The article distiguishes between mental models and hypermodels.  Mental models can be either learner's mental model or the scientist's or designer's mental models of a phenomena. Mental models are internal models. Hypermodels are computer models that are part of an interactive curriculum and therefore external models. The learner however uses these external i.e. hypermodels to change and modify the own internal or mental model.
Mental models are revised and modified continously during the learning process. Mental models can be constructed even before the actual learning process has started with the learner forming some idea as a mental model of the phenomena or topics to be learned,