Mental Health and Wellbeing

Introduction

This web quest is designed for year 8 students in the Health and Physical Education class. This task is set to be completed during the study topic of "Mental Health and Wellbeing". Students will be working in groups investigating online resources for secondary information and collecting primary information through their own research. Students end goal is to use both primary and secondary information to interpret an understanding of a selected mental disorder to produce an oral presentation.

 

 

Task

This assessment piece has three sections involving, a survey, an oral presentation and a written reflection. This task will be spread out over a 3/4-week period and will have time in class to work on the assignment.

In groups of 3-4 (depending on class size) students will firstly be conducting a survey using "Survey Monkey". Students will construct questions they believe are relevant for finding information and data regarding the different types of mental health. The survey will be due after one week, allowing for surveys to be conducted the following week first lesson.

Students will then work together to create a 4-6 minute oral presentation with a "powerpoint", "prezi" or "poster" to accompany their speeches. Students will have a choice in the type of presentation tool they would like to accompany their presentation.

On completion of student's oral presentation they are to complete a 50-100 word reflection sheet expressing their strengths, weaknesses and limitations experienced during their group work.

Process

Task 1:

Students in groups of 3-4 will create a survey consisting of max of 12 questions. The survey will aim to assist students knowledge of mental health and wellbeing disorders and provide a deeper understanding of how frequent these disorders are experienced by students a similar age. The survey will be aimed at the audience of year 11 or 12 students and will not ask students for name, students will remain anonymous for privacy reasons.

The questions will aim to provide the year 8 students with a better understanding of the number of students who experience or have friends and family who have had or have mental health disorders. Questions can be structured to also help explain how many people seek help or would if they were experiencing mental health issues. Questions must be approved by teacher before using surveys.

Students will then interpret the surveys and form results. These results will be useful during the formation of task 2, being an oral presentation.

Task 2:

Students second task will be in the form of an oral presentation accompanied with a visual piece. Students are expected to include thorough research with appropriate referencing from a range of online webpages (found in 'credits').

The oral presentation will express the groups knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing including details of a specific mental health disorder. (Students will choose disorder post completion of survey). 

The oral presentation requires students to create an informative presentation aiming to educate their fellow peers about a single mental health disorder chosen by the group. Students will firstly introduce mental health and wellbeing, then will provide a deeper understanding for the chosen illness. Include information such as, what it is, symptoms of illness, causes of illness, treatment, where to get help and provide strategies the group believes could help combat the chosen mental health disorder.

Each group will have a informative and creative visual piece to accompany students presentation. This can be in the form of a variety of multimodal or hand made products. Students can use powerpoint, prezi or a poster as a few examples. Other formats can be appropriate as long as it has been agreed upon with the teacher.

Students will present over two lessons.

Task 3:

After each presentation each group member will complete a written reflection and question sheet. The reflection and question sheet will be completed individually reflecting on the process the group went through during the creation of the survey and presentation. It is vital that students are honest and specific for the description of how they worked as a group and the input each member had throughout the process. 

Evaluation

 

A

B

C

D

E

  



Knowledge and Understanding

Express a very high and accurate understanding of content, with the ability to elaborate and justify reasoning behind content knowledge. Use of correct terminology and express ideas in own words.

Provide informed understanding of content with some reasoning and justification. Appropriate discussion including personal opinion and strategies for topic knowledge.

Shows a satisfactory knowledge of content, with some explanation of content. Students must show some evident understanding through strategies and personal opinion of content knowledge.

Limited content knowledge present with no reasoning, providing partial statements expressing understanding of content.

Expresses little to no knowledge of content, providing little input during creation process with no explanation throughout presentation.

  
 



Application of Skills

Each group member demonstrates continuous eye contact engaging entire audience, speaking very confidently and clearly with fluctuation in tone and volume expressing enthusiasm. Presentation is fluent and well organised.

Expresses a good level of audience engagement with good eye contact and clear voice control. Group members contribute and each expresses their knowledge throughout the presentation. Presentation is organised and flows throughout.

Some audience engagement with limited eye contact, speaking with some clarity and expression. Each group member communicates some input throughout.

Provide very limited eye contact, pitch, volume and tone change. Group present an unorganised and disjointed presentation.

Holds no eye contact with the audience, speaking in low volume and monotone expression.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, this Web Quest develops student's knowledge of Mental Health issues and encourages the development of an understanding of these issues. The group activities included students utilising ICT throughout the self-directed inquiry-based assessment task. 

On completion students will complete a reflection process including a questionnaire for constructive feedback of group work, ICT use and also feedback for the teacher on the design and process of the Web Quest.

Credits

Teacher Page

Rationale:

A web-quest is the perfect tool for educators who are confident or even just willing to incorporate information and communication technologies (ICT) into learning. A web-quest is an inquiry-based learning tool aiming to develop student’s use of ICT and also encourage student-centred cooperative learning. The creation of a web-quest allows students to all access the learning activity online aiming to be classroom-based, however provides students online access from their own home.

Any teacher or educator can create and share a web-quest. These web-quests can be flexible with how long the activity or lesson will go for, whether this is for a single lesson or over several weeks. Teachers can use Web-quests to construct the learning activity or activities providing students with an organised online resource bank selected by the educator (Zheng, Stucky, McMack, Menchana, Stoddart, 2001). Thus providing students with a guided learning environment aiming for them to focus on constructive group work and a higher level of thinking (Zheng, Stucky, McMack, Menchana, Stoddart, 2001).

A web-quest has six elements that are provided for students. These elements aim to guide students specifying; what is expected, and how it will be completed, how the task will be marked and the webpages they need for their research. These elements include, Introduction, task, process, evaluation, conclusion and credits.

Each element of the web-quest sets the students up to be able to conduct all the research to develop the end product. The introduction, task and process essentially introduces the content topic, describes what the expected end goal is and a basic instruction process that is expected from the students. These elements set up the students with a basic guide that each group can follow aiming for students to work cooperatively with innovative and creative thinking. The evaluation component to the web-quest provides a marking rubric for students to also help guide their creation and development of the presentation. The conclusion summaries the goal of the end product and can also prompt teacher and student reflection, helping students understand how their group worked and also help the teacher providing feedback on the web-quest providing its strengths, weaknesses and limitations. The last component is the credits. The educator lists websites, other online resources and general ICT programs and software that are expected to be aid students throughout the web-quest task.

Andrianes Pinantoan (2013) stated the benefit of teachers pre-selecting resources moves the focus from students finding the information to how they will interpret and use the information. This shifts the teacher from showing the websites and going through them together to providing each group with all the resources, it is the student’s job to then go through all the webpages themselves and analyse and interpret the relevant and significant information. This structures the activity more student-centred, allowing them to develop a deeper understanding with the teacher facilitating their learning providing guidance and answering questions where appropriate.

Andrianes Pinantoan (2013) also expresses that a well-designed web-quest aims for students learning to include working together, thinking creatively and utilising technology. These three learning elements are essential for students to maximise learning in today’s society. However it is vital that the learning activity is structured around and includes elements of the Australian curriculum, firstly from the Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum, and secondly components of the ICT general capability as web-quests are online tasks.

The overall goal for the web-quest is for students to use online and personal research to gain an understanding of mental health and a chosen mental health disorder. The creation of the oral presentation communicates their knowledge and understanding and also aiming for them to suggest strategies they think may help.

The oral presentation is structured to include many elements of the HPE curriculum, three major descriptions included are:

Each of these content descriptions will be developed through student’s online research, analysis and creation of presentation. The three primary ICT capabilities being ‘investigate’, ‘create’ and ‘communicate’ are vital aspects that are experienced by students during the web-quest task. Students are expected to use the investigating process to locate, access, generate, organise and analyse data and information through an online setting (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2017). Thus generating a better understanding of mental health and wellbeing through investigating the provided websites cooperatively as a group.

The second capability of ICT being ‘create’ aims for students to generate ideas, plans, processes and solutions to challenges (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2017). The main connection between the create capability that is seen through the web-quest is during the creation of the oral presentation students will have to propose their own strategies to combat mental health illnesses. This process requires students to work cooperatively using prior and knowledge gained through research to develop these ideas.

With communication being the third ICT capability, having the web-quest set as a group task students have the chance to “collaborate, share and exchange” (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2017) knowledge to develop the oral presentation.

By developing each ICT capability throughout the use of digital technologies, students will be able to use their prior knowledge to develop a deep understanding through self-directed group research and online investigation. Web-quest tasks are an innovative and effective online tool for teachers to create and share. This online inquiry-based educational tool allows for student-centred learning encouraging a high level of cognitive thinking and a supportive cooperative environment. Thus shifting the teacher to a facilitator role guiding students through the task prompting students to work together asking questions and developing their own understanding through experience.

 

References:

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2017). Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability. Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/information-and-communication-technology-ict-capability/

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2017). Health and Physical Education. Australian Curriculum. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/health-and-physical-education/?year=12997&strand=Personal%2C+Social+and+Community+Health&strand=Movement+and+Physical+Activity&capability=ignore&capability=Literacy&capability=Numeracy&capability=Information+and+Communication+Technology+%28ICT%29+Capability&capability=Critical+and+Creative+Thinking&capability=Personal+and+Social+Capability&capability=Ethical+Understanding&capability=Intercultural+Understanding&priority=ignore&priority=Aboriginal+and+Torres+Strait+Islander+Histories+and+Cultures&priority=Asia+and+Australia%E2%80%99s+Engagement+with+Asia&priority=Sustainability&elaborations=true&elaborations=false&scotterms=false&isFirstPageLoad=false

Pinantoan, A. (2013). Webquests – An Introductory Guide and Resources. Open Colleges. Retrieved from http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/teacher-resources/webquests/

Zheng, R, Stucky, B, McMack, M, Menchana, M, & Stoddart, S. (2005). Webquest learning as perceived by higher-education learners. Tech Trends, 49(4), 41-49. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02824110