The Big Question for this Minequest:

What do I need to do to make Minequesting in my classroom a smooth operation and the best use of instructional time?

Welcome to the Minequest Safety Tour. You don’t need a hard hat for this tour and we think the time you invest will help you avoid frustrations later.

• Why take the tour?
  • Minequests intend to provide on-line directions to guide students through the learning journey, but even the best designed webquest requires a teacher to be familiar with the roadmap before students begin.
  • This tour replicates the format of Minequest, so you will experience how your students will access web links to complete their research and move through the pages of a Minequest. Becoming familiar with the structure of the Minequest format and the supplementary documents provided to support your Minequest instruction will help you answer questions before they arise.
  • This is a new collection. You know what they say about the best plans going astray. By touring the format and then the actual quests you are considering using, you can watch for undiscovered rocks in the road.

  About the Minequest Format

  The focus for each Minequest is reflected in the Big Question stated at the top of each of the four pages which comprise a quest. Each Minequest is composed of four parts, Exploring Issues, Mining Information, Processing Ideas and Producing Solutions.

  You are currently viewing the Exploring Issues page, where students are presented with the Big Question for the first time, and topics and the scope of the quest are introduced.

  Students should always begin the quest at the Exploring Issues page and proceed through each part in the order shown in the links bar at the bottom of this page. However, many Minequests direct students to preview all pages before actually beginning. This is a good strategy to use in all Minequests. Students can see the processes, tasks and products coming ahead. This can help guide their research, clarify expectations from the start, and avoid surprises. (Students could also preview the quest by viewing the Task Summary described later in the Tour.) Links to each page of the Minequest are provided on each page not only so that students can preview all parts, but also so that they can easily return to a previous page if necessary to revisit a link or clarify instructions.

  Often, little or no research actually begins on the Exploring Page.

Moving on ...

Continue the Safety Tour at the MINING page, using the link below.

EXPLORATION

MINING

PROCESSING

PRODUCT

MINEQUEST HOME    Minequest Teacher Gateway