Introduction

Growing older, changing, making decisions are all events that may affect the rest of your life. We all do it all of our lives. The transition from childhood to adolescence can be rough for anyone. This webquest will require you and at least three other students to read about social and psychological issues related to puberty and to assess your long term goals in life, conduct research on the issues facing Canadian teens today, conduct an interview with an adult about their transition through adolescence, and prepare an autobiography. This webquest will help you put this period of your life into context. You will also be able to compare your experience with an earlier generation and with the lives of other young people.

Task 

You will begin by reading a couple of short articles on puberty. Then you will write a research report on adolescence and on youth today in Canada. Next, you will prepare a comprehensive, composite autobiography. The webquest then continues with an interview with a trusted adult about what they went through in puberty. You will end the webquest by recording your private thoughts and reflections in your Personal Health Journal.

Process and Steps

(Don't forget to take notes on your activities in this webquest. Use section 3.2 of your Personal Health Journal.)

1. To get started, all members of your group will read these summaries on the social, psychological and emotional changes everyone goes through as they pass through puberty. Use Section 3.1 of your Personal Health Journal to record your notes. Prepare a compilation/reports of the notes from all members of your group using the same format.



2. Prepare a report on adolescence by reading the following selected materials. You will follow the instructions in the Research Assignment document prepared for this webquest. Here are the documents for you to read:



• A self-discovery checklist related to long term goals and careers prepared by Canadian Heritage
• A chart of Normal Adolescent Development from the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychology
• Transitions to Adolescence from a Health Canada project
• Articles selected by a group of university students on how adolescent values  are formed and influenced
• Don't miss the one on risk-taking as part of the development of a sense of belonging
• Young Canadians: The Big Picture, selected by the Vanier Institute.

 

3. Write a comprehensive, composite autobiography of your lives. You will do this by first having each member of the group prepare their own autobiography. To do this, you will use the autobiography workbook, It's All About Me, which is based on the previous assigned readings. Each member of the group will use this workbook to reflect on their own development.



4. Next, all members of the group will use the Guide to Preparing a Biography/Autobiography to prepare a composite, or combined (and imaginary) autobiography of a typical teenager today. Choose the most interesting and powerful examples and ideas from the notes of the members of your group. (Note: You should only share things about your life that you are comfortable with having others know.)



5. Each member of the group will conduct an interview with a trusted adult about puberty and adolescence. To do this, use Section 3.5 of your Personal Health Journal  and also use the Puberty/Adolescence Interview Guide prepared for this webquest.



6. Then the group will prepare a combined or composite (imaginary) biography from the ideas and comments from all of the interviews with adults. The group will submit this combined report in the form of a composite or combined biography. You should follow the Guide to Preparing a Biography/Autobiography used in step 4 above. Complete this task by analyzing how the youth autobiography compares to the adult biography.
   
   
7. Reflect on the private aspects of your autobiography in your Personal Health Journal .



8. Prepare a one page report summarizing and commenting on the readings and activities of this webquest. Use Section 3.1 of your Personal Health Journal to accomplish this task.



9. Assess how well you and your group participated in this webquest. Use Section 3.3 of your Personal Health Journal to accomplish this task.