Using WebQuest to improve understanding of ecology

As a component of a large project to bring technology into college classrooms to enhance learning, I developed learning modules for two courses using the public resource WebQuest (http://webquest.sdsu.edu/), an inquiry-oriented activity that guides learners as they analyze, synthesize, and evaluate material from the Web. The objective of these teaching and learning experiments was to design strategies to help students in science and general education courses learn to gain knowledge and critically evaluate information on the Web about current scientific issues. Students in two writing classes for freshmen science majors and a class on coevolution for senior biology majors conducted these week-long projects. In these structured activities students worked individually and in groups, evaluating selected websites on a) global climate change and b) biodiversity issues. They considered specific aspects of the sites, such as content, resources, authors, and sponsorship of sites. In a mock town hall meeting, interest group teams reported their results about the arguments and evidence presented in sites they examined. Final assessments showed that students successfully integrated information among disciplines of science, constructed scientific arguments and supported them with appropriate evidence, and gained new skills to evaluate scientific information from the Web and other media. After the WebQuest activities students scored as well or better than more advanced students on diagnostic questions dealing with common naïve conceptions. Many of us seek to improve scientific literacy and WebQuests effectively use technologies that are familiar to students to help them learn.