WebQuest

WebQuests were the brainchild of Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in 1995. Now, twenty years later, there are thousands of WebQuests (digital curricular units with a research component) that teachers have developed for use in the classroom and for sharing with other teachers.  The standard format is to have the following:

Introduction–essential question or task
Task–a brief description of the expectations of the students (to do, to produce)
Process–explanation of the research process
Resources–links to materials that will enhance student research
Evaluation–suggestions for assessment
Conclusion–a parting statement by the designer

WebQuests vary greatly in quality, but many are brilliant. Highly recommended WebQuests are founded at http://bestwebquests.com. Unfortunately, these highly rated quests include very little about Mesoamerica. You might like to develop a WebQuest as part of your curricular contribution to the summer institute, among other options.  San Diego State offers a search engine for finding WebQuests from the thousands that have been made:  http://www.webquest.org/. Once again, there is very little here of use in teaching about Mesoamerica.  I found a site about teaching the Día de los Muertos as it is celebrated in Oaxaca.  But I am sure you could improve upon it.  For one thing, the yellow text on a yellow background makes it difficult to read.

If you’d like to try your hand at creating a WebQuest, go to this page, where Bernie Dodge offers some detailed instructions: http://webquest.org/index-create.php.