Online Scavenger Hunt

Purposes: To enlarge students' online research capabilities; to encourage teamwork

Procedure: Divide students into groups of four or five. Post a list of items (primary documents, articles, graphics, persons, events, etc.) for which the teams are to conduct an online search. Students must gather the items and deposit them in the team's digital drop box. Either files or links may be posted. Set a time limit and award points for the following:

largest number of items found
most incisive article
most revealing graphic
most helpful archive
items from foreign websites

The team with the most points gets a free pass on a homework assignment. Use a discussion board forum to have students discuss: the easiest and the most frustrating aspects of the game; further uses for the materials discovereed; "rabbits" they chased while looking for items; the value of this exercise.

Examples:

Graphics--photo of prominent person, photo of two prominent persons together, chart, map from certain time period, illustration of a particular concept, physical object from a particular culture or time period
Persons--facsimile of document produced by the person, article written by the person, website dedicated to the person
Events--timeline of events, newspaper clipping about event, illustration of event, analysis of effect of the event