STEM Design for Learning: Designing School Supplies Webquest Project

A Webquest for Real World Project-Based Learning

Students become school supply designers in this interactive webquest. The familiar desk objects open new worlds to critical thinking and collaboration as students make decisions about school supply form, function, and fun through project-based learning.

Students form cooperative groups as “school supply companies”. Prior engineering knowledge is activated through a series of questions before students launch into web-based research accessing a set or provided sites arranged in increasingly higher reading and complexity levels. Each student becomes a design expert on one school supply by following their own learning path to research, synthesize information for multiple sources, and create and communicate design ideas within their groups.

WebQuest project-based learning teaches children how to use essential skills for obtaining information and analyzing what they read and view on the Internet. By taking part in collaborative group projects, students learn to work together and discuss how to use information for shared learning goals.

The webquest is aligned to both Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Common Core State Standards (ELA). Other features include a standards aligned assessment rubric, printables, student guided inquiry pages, and web links, and a student Internet resource evaluation tool.