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WebQuest: Caring for Australia's Land & Rivers

Introduction

You are to imagine you are a journalist working for a conservation magazine. You have been assigned by your editor to write a feature article on one of the important threats to Australia’s land or waterways.

The Task

Your task is to write a feature article of approximately 700 words as a report that describes:

the nature of the threat and how the threat currently impacts on the environment
the causes and consequences of the threat
the present and future options for care of the land or waterways

Resources

Many of the resources that you will need to help you with your investigation can be found on the World Wide Web. You will also need to select information using the resources of your library by using the computer catalogue, library information files, newspapers, newspaper indexes, magazines ( try Guidelines or Ausguide first).

Try other sources of information and other libraries:

Government departments

Telephone directory - for organisations

Visit relevant places

Take photographs

Locate CD-ROMS

The Process

1. First you need to define the threat being investigated.

Name the threat you are going to investigate:.......................................................

2. Reword this topic as one or more questions to be investigated:

...........................................................................................

3. Select your information:

Remember to select only the information that is relevant to your topic.

4. Set out your notes with the author, title, and page numbers.

You may find it useful to use a different page for each source.

Remember to write down the information in note form, NOT in sentences, when you are noting from either books or the computer.

Have you enough information to answer the question?

If not, you will need to consult the information source again.

5. Organising your information for the final report:

Go through your notes, organising points from different sources together into one answer:

plan your answer
write a rough draft

6. Presenting your information:

write a final copy
include any relevant maps, charts, diagrams, and quotes
include a bibliography

Assessment Criteria:

You must be able to show the capacity to research, analyse and evaluate an issue of importance to the Australian environment.

You must demonstrate the ability to find relevant information from different sources.

You must be able to present information in a report using your own words.

You must be able to suggest ways of dealing with this threat in the future.

Conclusion

At the conclusion of this assignment you should be able to describe a major threat to the environment and suggest ways that it can be managed.