Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego?

This web quest was developed to teach students about the 7 ancient wonders of the world. The lesson complies with the Florida Sunshine State Standards of:

-    SS.6.G.1.3: Identify natural wonders of the ancient world.
-    LACC.6.W.3.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.
-    LA.6.6.1.1: The student will explain how text features (e.g., charts, maps, diagrams, sub-headings, captions, illustrations, graphs) aid the reader's understanding;

By utilizing the theme and game show of �Where in the World is Carmen San Diego�, this lesson brings students to an understanding of a history and geography lesson by nontraditional, entertaining means. By the end of this lesson, students should:
 
1.    Develop an interest in the study of the 7 wonders of the ancient world.
2.    Use the power of Internet technology for advanced exploration.
3.    Learn information about key aspects of the 7 ancient wonders.
4.    Use Geography to identify different parts of the world.
5.    Work cooperatively with teammates to collect information and understand a topic.

Resources needed to properly execute this web quest include:

-    Access to a computer lab
-    Cue cards for the game
-    Questions for Rounds 1,2, & 3
-    3 desks or podiums in the classroom
-    Point cards
-    Chart Diagram of the 7 ancient wonders of the world
-    A chalk or expo board and markers

The following web links for students to conduct their research

o    http://www.history.com/topics/seven-ancient-wonders-of-the-world
o    http://www.unmuseum.org/wonders.htm
o    http://www.seven-wonders-world.com/

The effectiveness of this lesson will be based on how well the students conducted their research and participate with the game. It is important as the teacher to pay attention to the responses the student provides for each question and how well the student performs not only during the questioning rounds but during the creation of the chart diagram. The information conveyed in the diagram will be a more complete display of what the student has learned and how well they are able to recreate this information by filling in the blanks in the chart and furthermore explaining their findings. Their participation during the game will also help to determine how cooperative they were within their group. For a further breakdown of the criteria, please see the grading rubric.

In conclusion, History and Geography are difficult topics to teach because students typically do not find a familiarity or interest in the subjects. I believe that the incorporation of discovery and hands-on learning in this web quest sets the tone for its effectiveness to teach this material to students in a way that they will not only learn it for the day, but remember it months later and possibly further.  Moreover, the foundation of this web quest (finding Carmen San Diego) is solid enough to be applicable to other subjects and grade levels by just tweaking the material itself. For instance, by changing the 7 wonders of the world to the most famous tragedies of Shakespeare, this web quest can easily become a Language Arts lesson. Or, it could just easily be applied as a 9th grade World History lesson.

Modifications that can be made for this Web Quest include:

-    Changing/modifying the questions for round 1 &2 to be more suitable for your subject or class
-    Extending the research requirements by adding another task (if necessary)
-    Can expand on the chart diagram by requiring students to create a map of the countries where the 7 ancient wonders are from and indicating the demographics of the area.
-    Can have students create a actual size map on the floor of the classroom or on the board and indicate different area locations of where Carmen could have gone with the stolen artifacts based on research they would have conducted and clues provided.

Also attached to the resources section is a video of what the game show of Carmen San Diego looks like so teachers can have an idea of how the game should be played or even take more ideas from the show and incorporate it into the lesson. So enjoy and good luck on your search to finding out "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego."