Introduction

Living in 'tornado alley'   requires a great deal of preparedness for every individual. Pretend that you are the administration of a new elementary school. It is your responsibility to create a safe environment for your students and faculty. This job means the difference in life or death. You must determine the most safe and secure areas and places in your school for the students to go to in case of a tornado. As a new administration, are you ready to take on this most important mission? Do your best-our lives depend you!

The Quest

As the administration you must determine the most safe and secure areas or places for the students to go to during a tornado warning. You also must identify supplies that need to be available in those places during a tornado. After you have analyzed your information you will create a product to share this information with your faculty, students, and parents. Your product can be chosen from the following list: poster, brochure, power point, video.

The Process and Resources

You will need to work with your assigned cooperative group. Decide within your group what part each person will do. (Everyone must be actively involved.) All of group will be presenting and deciding which product to create.
-Outline project
-Research data
-Acquire graphics, video, and sound
-Record data
-Analyze data
-Compile data
-Proof read
-Edit data
-Document references

Phase 1 - Background: Something for Everyone

Use the Internet information linked below to answer the basic questions of who? what? where? when? why? and how? Be creative in exploring the information so that you answer these questions as fully and insightfully as you can.

• Tornado hits elementary school
• Tornado closes school
• School damaged
• Top Ten Tornado Damaged Schools

Phase 2 - Looking Deeper from Different Perspectives

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Individuals or pairs from your larger Web Quest team will explore one of the roles below.

2. Read through the files linked to your group. If you print out the files, underline the passages that you feel are the most important. If you look at the files on the computer, copy sections you feel are important by dragging the mouse across the passage and copying / pasting it into a word processor or other writing software.

3. Note: Remember to write down or copy/paste the URL of the file you take the passage from so you can quickly go back to it if you need to prove your point.

4. Be prepared to focus what you've learned into one main opinion that answers the Big Question or Task based on what you have learned from the links for your role.

Building Safety Engineer

Use the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to Building Safety Engineer :

Research and determine the most safe and secure areas and places for students to go at school during a tornado warning. 

• Severe Weather Safety Guide - Tornado Safety in School plus graphic
• Weather Safety - click on weather safety, tornado, during tornado
• Tornado Project - Scroll down to safety in School
• Preparedness Guide - Tornado Safety
• Safety plan
• School Plan
• Florida plan
• Helpful ideas

Supply Coordinator

Use the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to Supply Coordinator:

 Determine items necessary to have available in secured areas an places during a tornado warning.

• Preparation and Safety tips for Tornado
• Safety Plan
• Plan ideas

Graphic Technician

Use the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to Graphic Technician:

 Locate pictures, video, and sound to enhance presentation.

• Kids Page on Tornados - tornado video
• Twister   Tornado Safety
• Tornado Pictures - Several graphics
• Kids Safety Page - Pictures on tornado safety
• Tornado Graphics - Scroll down to tornado photo scrapbook
• Wichita Falls Tornado - Many pictures

Presentation Coordinator

Use the Internet information linked below to answer these questions specifically related to Presentation Coordinator:

 Assemble information and graphics, video, and sound in a multimedia presentation to be shown to faculty, students, and parents.

• Power Point
• How to make a brochure  in Publisher
• Brochure tips
• More brochure tips
• How to make 3 fold brochure in Word
• How to make brochure in Word using template
• Information about using graphics
• Tips for video
• Digital videography and photography
• Tips for classroom video production

 

 

Phase 3 - Debating, Discussing, and Reaching Consensus

You have all learned about a different part of Tornado Safety. Now group members come back to the larger WebQuest team with expertise gained by searching from one perspective. You must all now answer the Task / Question as a group. Each of you will bring a certain viewpoint to the answer: some of you will agree and others disagree. Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc. from the web pages you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Question. Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.

Create your presentation using the data you have agreed upon. Be ready to present it to our class. The class will choose the best presentation to share with our administrator. This rubric will be used to grade your work. 

Phase 4 - Real World Feedback

You and your teammates have learned a lot by dividing up into different roles. Now's the time to put your learning into a letter you'll send out for real world feedback. Together you will write a letter that contains opinions, information, and perspectives that you've gained. Here's the process:

1. Begin your letter with a statement of who you are and why you are writing your message to this particular person or organization.

2. Give background information that shows you understand the topic.

STATE THE TASK / QUESTION AND YOUR GROUP'S ANSWER.

3. Each person in your group should write a paragraph that gives two good reasons supporting the group's opinion. Make sure to be specific in both the information (like where you got it from on the Web) and the reasoning (why the information proves your group's point).

4. Have each person on the team proofread the message. Use correct letter format and make sure you have correctly addressed the email message. Use the link below to make contact. Send your message and make sure your teacher gets a copy.

Your Contact is: John Robinson

 

Conclusion

So is an elephant smooth, rough, soft, or hard? Well, when you're blindfolded and only *looking* at one part, it's easy to come up with an answer that may not be completely right. It's the same for understanding a topic as broad or complex as Tornado Safety: when you only know part of the picture, you only know part of the picture. Now you all know a lot more. Nice work. You should be proud of yourselves! How can you use what you've learned to see beyond the black and white of a topic and into the grayer areas? What other parts of Tornado Safety could still be explored? Remember, learning never stops.