The World Building Webquest
Introduction

Task

Maps

Castles

Medieval Towns & Villages

Medieval Cultures

Creatures

Magic

Conclusion

Adults Page

Image Credits

Welcome to the Adult Page for the World Building Webquest!

This Wequest was designed for young adults: grades 6-12, ages 12-18.

Purpose of the WebQuest

The purpose of this WebQuest is to explore the connections between the fantasy genre of writing and medieval history, through building a fantasy medieval world. Many pre-adolescents and teenagers like to read fantasy novels and short stories. A large portion of those novels are set in a medieval-like era. I know that when I was younger, I got interested in reading fantasy novels because I was interested in castles and knights, and that reading fantasy novels spurred my interest in medieval history. So I though that this would be a good way to talk to pre-adolescents and teens about history, and to get them interested in it.

World Building is a long and complex process. This WebQuest touches on many aspects of medieval history as part of the world building process. So this is a long WebQuest. Each section can be completed individually. The whole WebQuest may take several days, weeks, or even months to complete.

In each section of the WebQuest, the goal is to make use of a pre-selected list of web resources, listed on the page, to find out about a particular aspect of medieval history which is connected to a piece of the world building enterprise. For instance, in the Castle Building section, the student is given the task of creating their own medieval castle design. They must first gather information about castles, from the web sites listed on that page, then apply what they have learned to draw their own castle design.

Eventually, I intend to add lists of recommended history and fantasy books for children and teens.

The Tasks in This WebQuest Are:

  • Creating a Map of a Fantasy Medieval World
  • Designing a Castle (several will be needed to complete the world)
  • Creating a Medieval Town or Village (the completed world will need many different villages, but the WebQuest starts with building just one)
  • Developing Cultures to Populate the World
  • Incorporating Magical or Mythical Races and Creatures (if the student chooses to do so)
  • Creating a System of Magic (if the student chooses to include magic in their world)

My hope is that this WebQuest will stimulate both a greater interest in reading for fun and a greater interest in learning about history. I also hope that going through the process of thinking about how to build a world from scratch will be something that helps students to improve their own creative writing and thinking. Perhaps it will even inspire them to write for fun!

This page was created by:

Aurora Lane Grey
2nd Year Masters of Library and Information Science Student
University of Washington, iSchool

Please feel free to contact me at agrey@juno.com if you have any questions, suggestions, or book recommendations.

Send Comments to: agrey@juno.com