You are moving to Japan!!

You are moving to Japan!!

A WebQuest for looking at cities in Japan

Introduction

Your parents have just told you that your family is moving to Japan. You have the option of living in one of these three cities:

Sapporo ----- Nagoya ----- Fukuoka

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The Task

Your family has asked you to do the research to determine which of the three cities would be best for the family. Your task is to decide on one of the cities and then to make a brochure to show them, highlighting all the positive things you have found out about that city.

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The Process

Step 1

The first thing you must do is decide what criteria you are going to use to make a comparison between the cities. What things are going to be important to you and to the rest of your family? To help your group brainstorm some ideas, use an organizer. Either download the "Inspiration©" file if you have the Inspiration program, or print a copy for your group to use.

Some things to remember when choosing your criteria:

Choose things on which you think you will be able to find information.
Try to choose things that you can compare between cities.
Think of things that would be important to the different members of your family.
Consider also the surrounding areas (regions) of the cities.

When you think you are ready, show your teacher the criteria you selected. Remember that your teacher will also want to see your brainstorm worksheet when you are completely finished the WebQuest.

Step 2

Before you start gathering your information, you need to find out where each of the cities are located. Go to Encarta to see a map of Japan.

Step 3

You are now ready to start looking for information about the three cities. Use the resources below to gather relevant material. You will need to keep track of your research. Create a way of recording your findings which makes sense to your group. Preferably, keep this information electronically, perhaps in a word-processing file. Specifically you want to find answers to the criteria you have set, but remember, you might find other interesting data along the way.

Good Luck!

Japan Information Network - lots of information about the different regions
Census Information - climate information
KidsWeb - use the map at bottom of page to find regional Information
Nagoya City , Nagoya city sketch - city websites
Sapporo , Sapporo tourist- city websites
Fukuoka, Living in Fukuoka - city websites

Step 4

Now that you have gathered the information, it is time to make a decision. At the end of your record keeping, your group needs to write a paragraph or two explaining your decision. Do not merely restate the facts - make inferences and judgments based on the facts.

Step 5

Using a presentation program such as Hyperstudio©, create a brochure using your own text and pictures from the internet, that will highlight the city you have chosen. The brochure can be either one or two pages. You want to present the details, but at the same time get the rest of your family excited about your choice.

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Evaluation

Your group will be evaluated using the following criteria. Make sure you check them out before you do the work as well as before you submit the final products.

Criteria Rubric	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Capable 3	Powerful 4
Graphic Organizer	not complete no logical links items not related to main topic	mostly completed some logical links no supportive details	fully completed few supportive details mostly related to main topic logical	fully completed logical many supportive details items related to main topic
Research	completely unorganized little information totally irrelevant	some organization some information a fair bit of irrelevant information	organized fair amount of information mostly relevant	well organized large amount of information relevant information
Decision	decision is not backed up not based on research not logical	decision has some supporting details somewhat logical mostly facts used some of the research	argument starts to go beyond the facts based on research mostly logical and supported	fully supported argument based on research very logical much more than just facts
Brochure	no clear plan no original thought not completed	beginnings of a plan some original work no real logical format	mostly clearly laid out and logical shows some originality	very clear and logical considerable inventiveness clear beginning and end
Overall Literacy and appearance	many spelling and punctuation errors messy appearance	some spelling or punctuation errors developing presentation skills	minor spelling or punctuation errors mostly well presented	No spelling or punctuation errors Very well presented
Overall Group Work	group did not function well together no clear plan no shared responsibility	times when group did not work well together developing plan some sharing of responsibilities	group functioned well together most of the time most members took responsibility	complete group cooperation clearly well planned all members took responsibility

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Conclusion

Congratulations! You have made a sound decision based on your research. Your family can move to Japan knowing that you have chosen well. Be sure to have all parts of the assignment ready for your teacher.

Good Luck guddorakku

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Credits & References

The idea for this WebQuest came from George Kelly. Thank you George! It was further developed using the textbook Exploring Our World: Other People, Other Lands for Grade 6.

Images were found using the Altavista search engine under the images option.

The Japanese word for Good Luck and accompanying script were taken from the Japanese/English translation server found at :
http://enterprise.dsi.crc.ca/cgi-bin/j-e/dict/

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Last updated on October 11, 2001. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page