Calculate Your Way to Another Country!

Process

Day One:

·        Find a partner. Together, choosea city that you both want to visit. If you don’t know which city to choose, first pick a country and go to its capital. Your destination must be on another continent. Find out how many miles are between Richmond and the city you are visiting using Google Maps.

You can research countries at this website: http://www.factmonster.com/countries.html

Think about why you want to visit this country. Have you heard about it before and want to learn more? Or, have you never heard of itand you want to learn something completely new? 

·        Start by drawing your route on the map using Google Maps as a reference. With your partner, determine yourtravel plan. Fill in the missing blanks ONLY in the “From”, “To”, and “miles”columns on the table on page two of your packet. You must include the followingsteps:

1.      Drive from school to theairport

2.      Flying from the airport inthe United States to the airport in your country

3.      Driving from this airport to a nearby hotel.

You must fly out of the Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC.

Helpful Hints:

To find an airport in your country, try this Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_airports_by_country

To find a hotel in your country, go to Google Maps. Put the airport in your country as the starting destination and type “hotel” for the ending destination. Google Maps should locate a hotel foryou. If it was not able to locate one, see Miss St. John or a peer tutor for help.

Use Google Maps to look up how many miles are between each leg of your trip, and the time it will take. You may not be able to find a time for the flight using Google Maps. Skip that for now and come back to it when you look up plane tickets on day two.

CHECKPOINT: Hand in pages one and two to be checked. They will be returned to you tomorrow.

Day Two:

Step 3.

·        You will complete the restof the worksheet individually and meet up with your partner later in the week to compare answers and plan your presentation. 

·        Complete the rest of page two in your packet. You can find the conversion factor of miles to kilometers using Google or this website http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0001729.html

Multiply the number of miles by the conversion factor to get the kilometers. You MAY NOT use a calculator. Show your work on the calculations worksheet and record your answers in the table.

How to look up your plane ticket on Jetblue.com: 

Click “one way”. Enter the dates you wish to travel (summer break is a great time) and the airports you are flying from. You may not stay for longer than seven days. 

Look at the example of my Jetblue search from Richmond to Los Angeles. In order to get to my destination, I had to take more than one plane. That’s okay- we’re going to lump the traveltime together. To calculate the time you are flying, take the very first timelisted (6:20 AM) and the last time listed (1:42 PM) and count the time inbetween. Record that in the table. Print this page and save it for later.

 Add your three times together to getthe time in hours. What can you do to convert this time to minutes? Complete  that calculation. Again, you MAY NOT use a calculator.

CHECKPOINT:Turn in page two to be checked. It will be returned to you tomorrow.

Day Three:

·        Find the populations of theUS and your country using this website: http://www.factmonster.com/countries.html

Round both numbers to the nearest hundred-thousand and find thedifference.

·        Find the averagetemperature by going to this website: www.yr.no

In the top right corner  click the little flag and select English. Search for your city.Click the first result. On the left hand side, click “statistics”, and you willsee a graph of the average temperature per month. Find the approximate averagetemperature during the month you will visit and record it on the worksheet. Dothe same for Richmond. Make sure that you are using Degrees Fahrenheit. Findthe difference between these two temperatures.

·        Calculate how many mealsyou will eat on your trip (number of days times number of meals a day).

Look up the prices for McDonalds and amoderately priced restaurant at this website: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/.Type in your city and scroll down to “Restaurants”.

Record the prices on page three and calculatehow much you will spend.

·       Look up the currency usedin your country at this website: http://kids.yahoo.com/reference/world-factbook/currency

You can find the conversion factorthrough Google (search “Conversion factor from US Dollar to [name of yourcurrency]”).  Once you’ve found the conversion factor, fill in the blanks on page four.

Remember, to convert from dollars toyour currency, take the amount in US dollars and multiply it by the conversion factor. You MAY use a calculator for these steps.

CHECKPOINT: Hand in all worksheets and your calculations to be checked. They will be returned to you tomorrow.

Day Four:

·        Get your worksheets backfrom Miss St. John. Are there any notes? Do you need to look at any problemsagain? Take time to do that now. If not, start to brainstorm whether you would like to do a PowerPoint or a poster for your presentation to the class.

·        Meet with your partner. Doyou both have the same answers for your worksheets? Begin to discuss your presentation. You may do a PowerPoint or a poster. You will need to include:

o  The name of your city and country

o  A map of your country with the city labeled

o  The table with your travel plan on page two

o  The difference between populations

o  The difference between average temperatures

o  The amount you will spend on meals

o  The cost of your plane ticket

o  ONE other topic that youwill research with your partner (a famous landmark in that country, food, sports, etc.) Find at least one image online and 3-5 facts from a book at the library.

o One paragraph about why it is important to use math in our daily lives. Here are some questions to get you thinking: 

      How could we have planned the trip without using math? Why is it important to know things like distance and cost? What else could we use math for when planning a trip? 

o A list of the sources you used, including ALL of the websites and your book.

You will be able to work on this during language arts blocktoday and tomorrow. We will present on Monday during Math.

Day Five:

·        Continue to work with your partner on your project.

Day Six:

·        Presentation Day!