The Writing About Nature mQuest was designed for high school students at my school, Riverside High in Basin Wyoming. The town sits in the valley surrounded by tall mountains so this activity seemed appropriate.
It involved students going on a field trip or hiking in the mountains in their own time and finding things in nature. They were to locate various plants, animals, and items found in nature and take notes on their print outs or on their mobile device as well as pictures. If they had mobile service where they found their subjects, they could use various internet sites and resources to identify it and then write a paragraph about it. The paragraph could be descriptive or creative in nature. Then they would upload their pictures and descriptions to a class Facebook group so that we could all see and discuss.
The Facebook group has since been closed but it wasn’t anything more than a regular group for the class that allowed posting and discussion.
This incorporated several different technologies that students already had or used to supplement their learning.
The details of the mQuest are below.