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World War I WebQuest
What is it like to be in a conflict as a soldier?

Sol-dier (sol ' jer): a person serving in an army; member of an army.

During a war, it is the soldier who fights, often far from home. The soldier may come home a hero, a cripple or a corpse. Mainly, we just hope they can survive in one piece, and, perhaps, triumph.

 

Instructions:

Your task is to follow each of the following pairs of links. After visiting each set of sites, your team should:

  1. discuss what it was like to be a soldier during World War I.
  2. go to your team's worksheet and write down an understanding or truth, based on the set #1 workstation/internet sites that you just visitied [see below]. If you need a worksheet, click here.
  3. then proceed to the next pair of sites of materials and repeat steps 1 and 2
  4. When you have visited, discussed and written down your understandings from the 3 sets of websites and/or other work stations that you visited, you will then complete the last section of your worksheet that answers the question "What was it like to be a soldier during this conflict?".

    Remember, in the next stage [Stage 2] of this WebQuest, each member of your team will be sharing your team's response with a larger group of participants. Make sure your understanding and analysis will help this larger group understand the essential question better.

Remember - your entire team will be assessed on what you write down and turn in!

Be sure to use your BACK button to keep returning to this page!

Visit these sites:

Set #1: You are there

The Lost battalion Incident

Commemoration of the Battle of Sommes:
Events of the battle
War Diary of the Newfoundland Regiment

Set #2:

American troops: Americans had to do it 'their way

The 51st Division: War Sketches: The story in sketches and captions of this Scottish division of the British Army.
Read the captions and view of sketches #1, #4, # 9, # 18, #21, #31, #33, #34, #38, and #45.

optional site:
The effects of war

Set #3

30,000 US Women were there
as you read this page, be sure to click on 'unsung women'

Black Yankee's
An Interview with Thomas Davis

Faces on the troops
Click here to see faces of participants

Sergeant York
The highest-decorated American of World War I

optional site:
This is a somber site, discussing the procedures for the burial of the dead in the battlefields.

 

Bibliography:

soldier2.gif and Faces on the troops
"Images of WWI." Isaac Rosenberg's 'Break of Day in the Trenches'. June 1995. Oxford University Computing Services. 1 January 2000. <http://info.ox.ac.uk/departments/humanities/rose/images.html>.
The Lost Battalion Incident
"Report on the lost battalion" The Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Force; The Great War Society. 1998. WWI: Trenches on the Web. 8 January 2000. <http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/lostbatt.htm>.
Commemoration of the Battle of Somme
"Commemorations of the Somme" World War I Document Archive. 11 January 1999. The Great War Primary Documents Archive, Inc. 1 January 2000. <http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/memoir/somme.html>.
Trench warfare
"Trench Warfare." WW1. 1999. Markham District High School, Markham, Ontario. 8 January 2000. <http://www.yrbe.edu.on.ca/~mdhs/compsci/dpt3ar/ww1/general/trench.htm>.
Doughboy
Kennedy, Eugene . "A "Doughboy" Describes the Fighting Front (1918)." American History Online: Primary Sources. 1 January 2000. Addison Wesley Longman (AWL) History. 1 January 2000. <http://longman.awl.com/history/primarysource_22_3.htm>.
The 51st Division: War Sketches
Farrell, Fred and Munro, Neil. "The 51st (Highland) Division, War sketches: plates 1-60." World war I Document Archive. 11 January 1999. The Great war Primary Documents Archive, Inc. 1 January 2000. <http://raven.cc.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/docs/51st/51st2.htm>.
American Troops
"The Great War: Interviews." The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. . PBS Online, KCET (Los Angeles) and the BBC. 1 January 2000. <http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/interviews/>.
Poison Gas
"Publications of the War." Winifred Owen Multimedia Digital Archive. 25 November 1999. Humanities Computing Unit, Oxford University Computing Services. 1 January 2000. <http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/pubs/>.
The effects of war
"The Great War: Interviews." The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. . PBS Online, KCET (Los Angeles) and the BBC. 1 January 2000. <http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/interviews/hupp2.html>.
30,000 Women
"Women in World War I." American Women in Uniform. May 1996. Captain Barbara A. Wilson, USAF (Ret).. 1 January 2000. <http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/femvets4.html>.
Sgt. York
Padilla, L.F. and Castagnaro, R.J.. "Alvin Cullum York." Medal of Honor Recipients on Film. 6 June 1999. . 2 January 2000. <http://www.voicenet.com/~lpadilla/york.html>.
Black Yankee's
Lawson, Eric and Jane. "Black Yankee: An Interview with Thomas Davis, First World War Veteran." Trenches on the Web. 10 November 1999. member of HistoryChannel.com affiliate program. 4 January 2000. <http://www.worldwar1.com/sftdavis.htm>.
Burial of the Dead
"Burial ofthe Dead" The Doughboy Center: The Story of the American Expeditionary Force; The Great War Society. 1998. WWI: Trenches on the Web. 8 January 2000. <http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/burial.htm>.

Send questions or feedback to Barry Sovel

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last updated 18 December, 2001