A WebQuest on American Architects   by Mark DeJarnatt

When you think of a famous American architect, does this man's name come to mind?     Frank Lloyd Wright was the name I thought of, but there are numerous other architects that have also made an important impact on the development of architecture in the United States.  This WebQuest will help you and your team to search on the World Wide Web for information on a number of prominent American architects.  It is your mission (if you accept it) to gather some information and learn more concerning American architects.

The Task
 
 Your mission is to:
 

• Read the complete web page before doing anything!!!
• As an individual, research the Internet concerning ten American architects.
• As an individual, answer the general knowledge and comprehensive questions.
• As a team, answer the higher level learning questions.
• As a team, prepare a timeline with the architects.
• As a team, prepare a presentation for the class that explains your findings.                                                           (i.e. written, oral, web page, power point)

The Process

    You will work individually and as a team to complete this project.  Three to five class periods will be allotted to work on this project.  If additional time is needed to complete the project, your team is expected to do this work outside of class.

The following steps you can do to complete the first phase of the project.
 
As an Individual:

• Each student will be assigned ten American architects to research.  Read all ten architect's webpages.
• Answer the general knowledge and comprehensive questions.                                                                          Print out these questions and record your answers.
• Find where four architects attended college in the United States and and where they received any overseas training.
• Find connections between any of your architects (i.e. worked at same firm, worked under a named architect, etc.).
• Describe the historical styles used by two architects.
• Produce the names, places and time periods of two architect's most worthy projects.

As a Team:
           Print out one set of the Team questions and record your answers.
 

• Compare where your eight selected architects attended college in the United States and where they received any overseas training.
• Compare the connections between your eight selected architects (i.e. worked at same firm, worked under a named architect).
• Classify the historical styles used by four architects and appraise any differences between architects.
• Prepare a timeline with your eight selected architects and their most worthy projects.
• Design and deliver a presentation for the class that summarizes this WebQuest project                                         (i.e. written, oral, web page, power point).

Resources
 

Use the following internet sites to do your research:        http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects.html              Contains a list of master architects from around the world and over 100 American architects are listed.

 
For more information
 http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/architec.html 

 http://www.zinezone.com/zines/arts/design/architecture/archi.save/index.html

  http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Design_Arts/Architecture/Architects/Masters/ 

  http://rs6.loc.gov/detroit/dtarctec.html
 
Books on Architecture, Architects, Design, and Building

    http://www.greatbuildings.com/books.html 
 

Evaluation
 

• Your constructive use of class time to accomplish the assigned task.     (individual grade)
• Your answers to the general knowledge and comprehension questions.     (individual grade)
• Your answers to the higher level learning questions.    (team grade)
• Your timeline of the architects.    (team grade)
• Your classroom presentation.  (team grade
• A rubric is supplied to evaluate the classroom presentation.

Conclusion
 
 Well I hope you and your team had fun searching the World Wide Web for information on American architects and have learned something new and interesting.  I hope this short activity has challenged you to do more searches on the Internet.  Be sure to check out the other web sites listed above under For more information or search under a specific architects name.         Back to Top