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Maryland Pursuit is an interactive game/contest in which students answer (or make up) questions about Maryland. They submit their answers by email and get positive reinforcement and a response within 48 hours. The game introduces the excitement of an interactive Internet experience as well as the thrill of a statewide competition to your classroom. You can stimulate interest and fun in your Maryland Studies program by encouraging students to participate. They will learn a lot about Maryland, and more importantly, a lot about research and evidence. Here are some suggestions for using Maryland Pursuit effectively: Form Teams
Maryland Pursuit lends itself well to group work. Peers support one another in searching the web or doing library research to find answers to the questions. Organize the students into teams and encourage them to pick a name for their team. Teams of 2 to 5 students work well. For the contest, teams may have no more than ten students. Teach the use of Evidence
Each of the numbered items poses a question to be answered. It also provides a clue or source where the answer may be found. Some of the answers can be found by clicking on the web site highlighted in the clue. Other answers need to be researched in the books cited. We recommend that you encourage and require your students not only to answer the question correctly, but to cite evidence to back up their answer. Evidence should includes a source (web or book), the page, and the actual quotation where the supporting information is found. Another source of evidence may be a person whom the students interview. If so, they should list the person's credentials for knowing this information. In this way, students are not only learning about Maryland, they are learning good research skills as well. Use Maryland Pursuit Worksheets
Worksheets for both Answering Questions as well as Making up Questions are provided in web and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) formats. You may want to print out multiple copies to distribute to your students. The Worksheets contain space for the question, answer, and evidence. They help students organize their thoughts and the information they have collected. Using one Worksheet per question keeps you organized as well. Check Students Work Before Submitting
The Worksheet allow you a quick way to evaluate your students' work in Answering or Making up questions. The Form has space for your own notes. Because of restrictions on student use of email in some schools, you may have email the students' answers to the questions yourself. However, be sure to share the response with them. You will also receive an email response for the questions which your students Make Up and mail in to the contest. Fall and Spring Contests
The Fall Contest will run between Monday, Oct. 1 and Friday, Dec. 14, 2001. The Grand Prize will be a sail aboard Pride of Baltimore II at a place and time to be determined in the spring. A Spring 2002 Contest will also be mounted. All teams will receive recognition for their participation including a certificate as well as Pride memorabilia, such as a picture or poster, for the classroom.
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