Lesson #2

Mississippi River Scavenger Hunt

Grade Level:
Fifth Grade

Theme/Title of the day’s lesson with a brief description:
Mississippi River Scavenger Hunt- Students will "hunt" for information about the Mississippi River online, given a worksheet.

Materials/resources needed:
1. Computer lab reserved
2. Pencils
3. 27 worksheets (one for each member of class plus 2 extra)

Goal(s) for today’s lesson:
Students will be able to use the Internet to find information on the Mississippi River on their own.

Objectives for today’s lesson:
Given a worksheet, students will use their research skills to find basic information about the Mississippi River on the Internet.

Procedures:

introductory experiences: (5 minutes)
Inform students that they will be going on a scavenger hunt today online. Bring students to computer lab.

developmental experiences: (35 minutes)
( 4 minutes) Once students are in the computer lab, list the web addresses on the white board of where they will find the answers. Point out that these websites are on the top of their worksheet also. Let them know that they have 30 minutes to find their information. http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/river_profiles/mississippi.html
http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/umesc_about/about_umrs.html
http://www.greatriver.com/
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200111/miss.asp
(30 minutes) Allow students to begin their scavenger hunts. As students are "hunting" for their information, walk around the computer lab to answer any questions the students may have.
(1 minute) When the 30 minute time-limit is done, direct students back to classroom.

culminating experiences: (5 minutes)
Go over answers to scavenger hunt.
Have students write a few sentences about something that they learned about the Mississippi River today.
Tell students that they will be making a travel brochure using this information in tomorrow’s class.

Assessments used during lesson:
Informal assessment done by walking around during "hunting" time and making sure students know how to research using the Internet.

___________________________________________________________________

http://cgee.hamline.edu/rivers/Resources/river_profiles/mississippi.html
http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/umesc_about/about_umrs.html
http://www.greatriver.com/
http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200111/miss.asp

Name:___________________________

Scavenger Hunt Questions:
1. Who was the first European to explore the Mississippi River?

2. In what year did he first explore the Mississippi?

3. About how long is the Mississippi River?

4. Where does the Upper Mississippi River begin and end?

5. Where does the Lower Mississippi begin and end?

6. How many people in the United States rely on the Mississippi River and its tributaries for drinking water?

7. When was the city of Winona first founded? By whom?

8. How did the Mississippi River get its name?

9. What does the name mean?

10. What famous document made most of the area along the Mississippi the property of the United States?

11. When was the first lumber mill built in Winona?

12. What is the "Mississippi flyway"?

13. How many states does the Mississippi River flow through?

14. What are those states?

15. What are the Mississippi headwaters?

16. What famous Delta Blues musician gets his name from the lower portion of the Mississippi River?

17. Winona Normal School became the ________ school ________ of the Mississippi River in _______.

___________________________________________________________________


ANSWER KEY:
1. Hernando de Soto
2. 1541
3. about 2,350 miles
4. From Minneapolis/St. Paul to Cairo, Illinois
5. From Cairo, Illinois, to New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Gulf of Mexico
6. 18 million
7. Native Americans gave the river the name Mississippi
8. "Big River"
9. Louisiana Purchase
10. October 18, 1851 by Orrin Smith
11. 1855
12. A migration corridor used by 40 percent of North America's waterfowl and shorebirds
13. Ten
14. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana
15. The first 400 miles of the river
16. Muddy Waters
17. First, west, 1858