"What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason!
how infinite in faculties!
in form and moving, how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel!
in apprehension, how like a god!
the beauty of the world!
the paragon of animals!"

From Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - 1601 - Act II. - Scene 2.

Introduction

Every person makes a contribution to society as we know it.  

Throughout history there have been many notable people from all walks of life that have contributed to society in a major way - helping to make the world as we know it today, helping to shape our ideas and beliefs, providing leadership and accomplishing amazing achievements for which we may aspire to.

By completing this WebQuest you will discover one of those inspirational people and will be able to reflect on how your personal contribution can help shape society of today and the future. To complete this WebQuest you will be required to create a biography.

Tasks

1. What you know now - Send an email to your teacher telling them who you think is a famous leader and why

2. Information Sources - Complete this Think, Pair, Share Sheet considering where you can get information from

3. Find 3 websites of 3 different famous people and perform a SWOT Analysis on the websites

4. What information do websites give us? What information did you gain from the web pages you visited - add the information headings to the group's poster

5. Send an email to your teacher stating what the Big 6 (Information Process) is and when you would use it (hint: look for the Big 6 poster in ICTs Lab)

6. Choose a famous leader,  thinking carefully about the contribution that person has made to society

7. Print out this example biography and identify the parts

8. Create a plan for your research about a famous leader 

9. Collect information on your research plan about your famous leader 

10. Create a draft from your notes - refer back to the example biography to see how to set it out

11. Self edit, edit with a partner and have the teacher edit your draft

12. Locate and save an image of your leader from the Internet into your H: drive

13. Publish (create, format and print) your biography using Publisher - ensure you have a title page, at least one page of text and a bibliography page

Process

Email - How to send a message to your teacher

Open Microsoft Outlook, enter your teacher's address  in the Address line, enter a subject in the subject line, write your message in the main message section, click send (you may need to click on send/receive as well).

Think, Pair, Share - Print out the sheet found at the hyperlink

Think - in this section independently write down all the places you know of that you can get information from

Pair - find a partner and discuss where information can be found and write your combined answers in the second section

Share - form a group of four and discuss where information can be found and write your combined answers in the third section

SWOT Analysis - Print out the SWOT Analysis sheet found at the hyperlink and fill in for 3 different websites

Name and Address - record the title and URL for each website you are analysing

Strengths - what are the positive aspects of this website, eg. it is easy to read, good colours, latest information, interesting facts

Weaknesses - what are the negative aspects of the website, eg. wrong or old information, difficult to read

Opportunities - what could be done with this website, eg. good for younger students

Threats - what would stop people using this website, eg. takes too long to open

Design - what the page looks like

Function - the information on the page and its purpose to provide information

User Friendliness - ability to be used

Parts of a Biography - this is the structure you should be using for your biography

Title Page - title, image, name, class, date

Orientation - brief overview of this person's achievements and information about the historical context

Events - write in chronological order the main events in this person's life (largest section of biography)

Evaluation - your opinion of the person's contribution to society

Research Plan - if you are having difficulties making a plan try using this Big 6 Research Plan and Note Making Sheet

Note Making - note making is used to organise information that you find and to make work your own and not just copied information of others.  You need to make headings under which you can record your notes using keywords.

Editing Process - Use this process to edit your draft - Print this Editing Page

Formatting A Publisher Document - Ensure your document is formatted correctly - Print this Formatting Page to check

Resources

Use these sites to help you locate information about your famous person.  If you can't find what you are looking for try using a search engine.

Hyperlinks last checked 1 October 2007, Mrs O

Evaluation

Check you have the following in your ICTs Folder:

Take your folder to the teacher for marking

Conclusion

Now that you have finished your biography you should be able to reflect on the contributions to society of that person.  

If you still have time, try these activities:

Designed by Sam Owczarek, Semester 1, 2004