Where should we go?

For this lesson, students will need to complete a series of steps that will lead them to their final product of creating a digital poster using the program Glogster EDU that features three places to visit within a state, along with the admission price (if any), travel costs (driving and flying - if applicable), best time of year, weather-wise, to visit, along with the worse time of year to visit., weather-wise. One of the places chosen to visit must incorporate one landform, or natural feature from their state.

Steps:

1. Have students brainstorm any places they would like to visit, hobbies, or interests that they might have. The point of the brainstorming is to have students create a list of things that they are interested in. Note: any places that are listed during the brainstorming session, must be located within the United States.

2. Once the students have completed their brainstorming, have them locate their partner for this activity by finding the student who has interests that are similar to theirs. Stress to students that their partner should be someone with the same interests as them, not necessarily their best friend.

3. With their partner, students need to go through their brainstorming lists circling any interests that they share with their partner. Then, begin researching possible places to visit for interest areas that both partners share with each other. (Note: Students cannot have a list that contains all of the same type of place, i.e. theme parks or camping sites, on their list. They need to have a variety of different places.) Once a group finds an actual place to visit (within the U.S.), they need to create a list that includes the name of the place they want to visit, along with the state that it is located in (the name of the city is not necessary)

4. Once students have found at least ten different places to visit, along with the name of the state each place is located in, they need to look at their list to see there is a state or states that appear on their list several times. If there is a state that has several of their places located in it, students will use this state to complete their Glogster poster. If there are no 'state' patterns on the places they have listed, students should select the state that contains the place that they have the most interest in visiting. (Try not to have different groups featuring the same locations within their posters. Try to find a variety of places to visit within the class.)

5. Next, groups need to select three places to visit within their selected state. One of their selections need to include one landform or natural feature found within their state. The other two places are left to the students' choosing as long as they are two different types of places.

6. Once students have selected their three places to visit, they need to research any admission costs that their places may have. Students also need to research the climate of the state in order to determine when is the best and worst time of year to visit their locations based on the climate. Finally, students need to research the cost of travel from the state they live in to the state they are traveling to by both plane and car. (Students should use the nearest airport to their location when determining the costs of their flights.) Groups should also have 3-5 facts that describe each of the places they would like to visit.

7. Once all of their research is completed, students are to create their Glogster poster in the style of their choosing. Students are allowed to include such features as pictures, text, videos, audio clips, or drawings, just to name a few within their 'poster'. The only requirement is that their poster must have each of the researched items listed in numbers 5 and 6 above. Remind students that they want to create a 'poster' that is visually appealing since the ultimate goal of their presentation is to convince their fellow students to visit their state and the various locations that they have created.

While completing this project, remind students that the focus of their project is the information contained within their Glogster poster and not solely the appearance of their poster.

Time needed to complete this project is yet to be determined since my students are currently completing this project for the first time.