Immortality A Webquest

Introduction This quest challenges you to investigate the search for immortality. The search for immortality is as old as man. It goes from the search for the Holy Grail, to the Fountain of Youth, to pyramids, to cryogenic freezing and cloning.

The Task As a group you are going to prepare a virtual time capsule to be buried in the depths of the school server to be discovered by NMS students 50 years from now. Each member of the group will include a video sequence of a three minute message to themselves which will show artifacts they consider significant which would give them some type of "immortality". In preparation for this task you will work in teams of 3 and visit a variety of sites analyzing different aspects of immortality.

The Process: Step 1 (Group) Together with your group read the following poem by Percy Shelly. Look up any words you don‘t know. Discuss in your group what you think the poet is trying to say: Write a 150 word paragragh to explain poem. What is it about? Who is it about? Is there a story? What are the themes? What is the message? Go to the following website and read what they say in sparks notes about the poem: /section2.rhtml /section2.rhtml Discuss in your group about your own attitudes and ideas about the theme of immortality. Then write a 150 word statement (or a poem) that reflects what the group thinks. OZYMANDIAS of EGYPT I met a traveller from an antique land Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things, The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains: round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The Process Step 2 (Individual) Go to the following web site and take the Life Extension Values Clarification Survey: Then write a 150 word paragraph about how it was for you to do this survey. What did you learn? What went through your head while doing it?

The Process: Step 3 (Individual) Watch at least 15 minutes of the film found at the following site: Write a word paragraph about what you were thinking while you were watching the film.

The Process: Step 4 (Individual) In the next step you will do some web-research into one of the aspects of immortality. –One of you will look at philosophical and religious aspects of the theme. A good place to start is: –One of you will look at the general area of life extension and what is being done by scientists to prolong human life: You can start at: –One of you will look at the more specific theme of cryonics.Start here: Each of you should read what wikipedia has to say about your theme. You should then follow at least 5 of the external links at the bottom of the page and at least one of these should be to one of the organisations or institutes dedicated to your theme. Find out as much as you can about one organisation. Write a 500 word summary of what you learn in your research about your subject using as much of the new vocabulary you pick up while doing the research as comes naturally. (The summary as a whole should be in your own words. Do not copy paste.)

The Process: Step 5 (Group) Get together and share what you learned during your individual research. Look back at the statement you made in step one. Do you still think the same way? Write another statement as a group. Say what has changed and why or explain why nothing has changed for you. Or write a completely new statement (or poem). Make a film of each other delivering your 3 minute messages to yourselves in 50 years. During your message you should show and explain some artefacts that are important to you and you think including in your message will give you some kind of ‚immortality‘. You should not read your message but speak freely (make some notes and organize your speech before). Cut and burn your film onto a CD/DVD.

The Process: Step 6 Turn in your work on the date assigned. You should have all the following elements neatly bound together in the following order: –Interpretation of ‚Ozymandias‘ (Group Work) –1st Statement of Group (Group Work) –Then for each individual (Individual Work) Statement of Personal Reaction to Survey Statement of Personal Reaction to Film Summary of Individual Research –2nd Statement of Group (Group Work) –CD/DVD with 3 minute messages