Island Inquiry Project

*Appreciation, Presearch, Search, Interpretation, Communication, Evaluation taken from Pathways to Knowledge^TM: Follett's Information Skills Model. For more information on the Pathways Model see Follett Software Company's website at: http://www.fsc.follett.com/products/infoskills.html

Research information about an island of your choice. Present the information you collect in an exhibit to share with the class in the final Tour of Islands. The teacher will model an island research project of New Zealand, incorporating many artifacts, games, pieces of literature, photos, and videos.

1. Read The Cay and/or Call It Courage. Through the literature, you will explore cultural value systems, as they existed in Call It Courage. You will examine the stereotypical cultural bias or attitudes that existed between the black skinned main character and his young white companion. You will also work on the skill of establishing the main idea of each chapter in The Cay as you create titles for each chapter in the book.

2. Learn specific critical viewing skills as you view an informational video on New Zealand in which you will identify the history, location, culture, economy, and geography of the island.

3. Atlas Activity. Use atlases to discover islands throughout the globe. Think about an island that you would like to know more about. It may be one you or someone you know have visited. It may be one that you've never even heard of. Choose three islands that you would potentially like to research.

4. Go to the library to discover what information you can find about your top three island choices. Use encyclopedias to find out what we know about these three islands. Where are they? What do they look like. What is most interesting about each island. After you know something about each island, choose one to research for the island inquiry.

5. Think about what you will need to know. Complete the Project Plan for your island, indicating what you need to know, where you will find it, how your display will look, and what materials you will need. So that you will be able to look up your island in reference sources on the Internet and in the library, you will need to know if the island is part of a country (for example, the Hawaiian islands are part of the United States) or if it is a dependent territory of a country (for example the Virgin Islands are a territory of the U.S.) or if it is an independent country. You will also need to know which continent it belongs to since you may need to look for information, starting with the continent.

6. Begin to explore all sources in the library for information about your island. Use the library catalog to locate books. Look for additional information in atlases and encyclopedias.

7. Investigate as many of the following sources as you think necessary to gather the information you need. Look for the history, location, culture, economy, and geography of the island. Record all sources used in your bibliography. See the sample bibliography format to help you.

8. Record notes about information found in your notebooks. Group information about the history, location, etc. together. Record all sources used for the bibliography. Interview a partner in the classroom about which continent the island is close to and whether the island belongs to another country or is independent.

9. Compare information sources from the library, such as reference sources and books, and Internet, such as the CIA World Factbok, World Atlas, Country at a Glance, and InfoNation with information you found in the encyclopedia. Is one more complete? Do they show pictures of the flag? Do they describe the meaning of the colors or symbols on the flag? Which one has the best information about the history, location, culture, economy, and geography of the island? Write a comparison of these sources in your social studies notebook.

10. Group your information using the categories of history, location, culture, economy, and geography. Write something that you think is important about your island in each of these categories in your social studies notebook. Be sure to also write down the name of the source(s) where you found the information so that you will be able to go back to it.

11. Compare and contrast information about your island and your home town. Think about the history, location, culture, economy, geography, and anything else important using a Venn diagram like the one below. Include all items in one diagram for your island.

12. Your final, culminating project for this unit will be to create a visual display for the Tour of Islands featuring the island you studied.

This will be the culmination of our study and will be a time for each of you to share with your classmates the information that you have collected. You are to share this information in the form of an exhibit or display that can fit on a student desk. You may use poster board or similar material for your exhibit. Each exhibit must include:

You may include any other information, pictures, music, food or artifacts that will enhance your exhibit but these are not required. If you choose to do so, you may also dress in attire that is worn on your island for the Tour of Islands.

13. Self Evaluation Answer the questions yourself about the quality of your work. Assess your process of finding and communicating information. Did you choose an island you liked? Were you able to find adequate resources? Did you look every place possible? Did you read all the information you found? Did you take notes? Did you learn many new things about your island? Did your island display communicate what you learned? Was your display attractive?

14. Project Assessment This is the form that your teacher will use to evaluate your final project. Use the Project Assessment as a checklist as you are complete the project.

Be creative........display your material in an eye appealing manner.......have fun!

Unit Overview: This is a unit that has its roots in geography, but many language arts skills will be the focus of our study in this unit. Information and technology literacy skills have been integrated where appropriate. The teacher will model an island research project, in this case, New Zealand, incorporating many artifacts, games, pieces of literature, photos, video, etc.

Students will read The Cay and/or Call It Courage. Through the use of these pieces of literature the students will explore cultural value systems, as they existed in Call It Courage. They will examine the stereotypical cultural bias or attitudes that existed between the black skinned main character and his young white companion. The student will also work on the skill of establishing the main idea of each chapter in The Cay as they create titles for each chapter in the book.

The students will also be taught specific critical viewing skills as they view an informational video on New Zealand. They will learn to use the World Wide Web as a research tool so they can research information on the island they choose to study independently. Their final, culminating project for this unit will be to create a visual display featuring the island they studied. They will be given specific guidelines to follow to create an effective display about the island they studied.

Integrated Language Arts, Social Studies, Information Skills, and Technology Objectives:

Unit Objectives	L	S	I	T
1. Students will read a fiction book set in Oceania.	x	x	x
2. Students will explore the detrimental effects of stereotypical attitudes about a culture different from their own.		x
3. Students will learn how to write a critical analysis of a piece of literature.	x
4. Students will learn and practice critical viewing techniques.	x		x
5. Students will select an island from Oceania and formulate questions about the history, location, culture, economy, and geography.			x
6. Students will identify potential sources of information.	x	x	x
7. Students will locate print and electronic sources in the school library media center.			x	x
8. Students will locate information using the World Wide Web as a research tool.			x	x
9. Students will use people as a source of information through personal, telephone, or keypal interviews.	x	x	x	x
10. Students will investigate how an island's location and climate influence and determine cultural systems of beliefs, values and traditions.		x
11. Students will develop an historic perspective on how the island they are studying was first settled.		x
12. Students will compare and contrast the culture of the island of their study with the culture of their home town..	x	x	x
13. Students will use their information to identify the pertinent information to be shared with others.			x
14. Students will learn how to develop a visual display with the information they gather during their research.	x		x
15. Students will determine the extent to which the project satisfied the assignment.	x	x	x	x

Unit created by: Cheryl Timion (cheryl.timion@uni.edu), 6th Grade Language Arts/Social Studies Teacher, Price Laboratory School, University of Northern Iowa, and Karla Krueger (karla.krueger@uni.edu), Curriculum & Technology Specialist, University of Northern Iowa. Copyright: 1997.