This week in music class, 4th graders will begin a group project in which they research and present information about musical instruments. Learning about instruments (what they're made of, what vibrates to make sound, what family they're in, what they sound like) is part of the 4th grade music curriculum and the study of instruments will be in the form of a WebQuest. A WebQuest is a web-based research project, typically with students working in groups, in which students complete tasks that are part of a realistic scenario. In this case, 4th graders are researching and selecting instruments to purchase for under-served children. While the scenario is imaginary, it is based on a program operating on the north side of Chicago.

4th graders have completed this WebQuest in past years but this year is a bit different. We are excited to be piloting two collaboration tools. Mrs. Ferdon is part of both pilot groups so students in Ms. Karasick's class and Ms. Sayner's class will work in GoogleDocs, Mr. McCulloch's class will work in Microsoft 365 and Ms. Eisenhut's class will be our "control group" and complete the project with paper/pencil.

Here is a link to the project website: http://ferdonmusic.com/webtours/inst_webquest/intro.html