This circa-1937 flyer promoted journal subscriptions to William J. Powell’s Craftsmen of Black Wings as a way to help out black youth. “Win the War - Plan the Peace,” 1944 poster Double V Campaign, Pittsburgh Courier, 1942 newspaper article   WebQuest What is a WebQuest? A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which students are given an interesting, challenging task to complete: a quest. To complete this task you’ll use information that comes from selected resources on the Internet. Your teacher may give you some specific advice on how you and your classmates will complete this WebQuest. Black Wings Winners: A WebQuest Introduction Task Process Resources Evaluation Conclusion Advice for Teachers Introduction         back to top For this WebQuest, you will take the role of student scholar, writer, and publisher. Here’s the scenario: You have been commissioned (hired) by the National Air and Space Museum to create Black Wings Winners, a publication for students. The purpose of the publication is to build kids’ interest in the pioneers of African American aviation and help kids learn about all the methods African Americans used to help them succeed as flyers. The National Air and Space Museum could have hired an adult to write this booklet, but they didn’t. They've come to you because they know you can choose images and provide information that other students your age will really care about. Task         back to top To create the booklet Black Wings Winners, you’ll need to do a few things: Browse the Black Wings collection [link to database] at this site. Learn about the history of African Americans in aviation. Choose 10 categories of winners. (You'll learn more about these categories when you learn about the Process of this WebQuest.) Choose a Black Wings winner in each category. Print an image from the collection for each Black Wings winner. Write text explaining why you chose each winner. Create your booklet. Process         back to top Spend about half an hour searching through the Black Wings collection. Make brief notes about people, places, or events that interest you. Then browse through the collection for images that will interest your classmates. Remember that the purpose of Black Wings Winners, the booklet you're creating, is to build kids’ interest in the pioneers of African American aviation. Choose 10 winner categories, one for each kind of Black Wings winner. Here is a list of possible winner categories. Choose 10 categories from this list, or think of your own categories: top African American aviator top plane top method of promoting African American participation in aviation top problem-solver top newspaper, article, or cartoon on African American aviation top flight by an African American aviator top supporter of African American aviation who was not an aviator top law or policy that affected African American aviation top quotation on the topic of African American aviation top military victory by an African American aviator top event breaking the “color line” in aviation top decision in the history of African American aviation top decision maker in the history of African American aviation top location in the United States for African American aviation top white supporter of African American participation in aviation From the Black Wings collection, choose a winner in each of the 10 categories you selected. For example, you may have chosen the category “top white supporter of African American participation in aviation.” First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt [link to item 14 in database] might be your winner in this category. She showed her support for African Americans in aviation when she joined Tuskegee pilot Chief Anderson for an airplane ride around the black flying school. Print the image from the collection that illustrates each of your 10 Black Wings winners. Write a paragraph for each winner explaining why you identified that person, place, event, or object. In your Black Wings Winners publication, this paragraph will appear opposite the image from the collection you’ve chosen to illustrate your winners. The paragraph should contain the following information: Title identifying the kind of winner. A brief explanation of the image (who? what? when? where?). You may use the image caption as part of your explanation. When necessary, do further research on the image by looking in your school or public library or looking at selected Black Wings resources [link to the resources page] on the Internet. A detailed explanation of why you chose this particular winner. How is this person, place, event, or object significant or extraordinary? Construct your Black Wings Winners booklet. Design and illustrate a cover and back page for your booklet. Then present the printed-out image of each winner and the paragraph you wrote explaining why you chose this winner. (The image and the paragraph should be on facing pages.) If you’d like, you may include a message from you, the author, following the cover page. In your message, communicate why you think students your age will be interested in learning about the history of African Americans in aviation. Share your booklet with your classmates. Resources         back to top For Internet and print resources you can use to complete this Black Wings Winners WebQuest, visit the Resources page at this web site. Evaluation         back to top Your teacher will evaluate your publication on the following qualities: Have you identified 10 categories of winners? Have you chosen a winner in each category? Have you chosen an appropriate image to illustrate your category/winner from the Black Wings collection? Have you written a complete paragraph explaining why you chose the winner in each category? Have you produced an attractive, complete booklet (cover illustration, back, design, neatness)? Would your booklet help build kids’ interest in the pioneers of African American aviation? Conclusion         back to top In spite of prejudice, African American pioneers in aviation made tremendous strides toward full participation. Individual Black Wings winners, as well as the efforts of many unnamed Americans, have led to the increasing influence of African American aviators today. Advice for Teachers         back to top This Black Wings Winners WebQuest is appropriate for students in grades 4 to 12. You may want to tailor this WebQuest to meet your students needs and abilities: Add to or change the kinds of research students must do to complete this WebQuest. Require longer or more comprehensive paragraphs of explanation. Require certain production standards: page design, word processing, illustration, etc. Add point values to the Evaluation section of this WebQuest, or build an evaluation rubric. Use the completed Black Wings Winners booklets as part of a book fair, an American Studies project, etc.