Let's Pick a Vacation Spot !

The students will work in groups of twos and threes to form a pretend family. If they want to, they may be creative and give themselves a new family name.

The students in each group will be responsible for dividing up responsibilities and presenting the final information and their recommendations using PowerPoint.

Graphs have to be computer generated using Ms Excel or online websites.

Tasks include the following:-

a) You must first pick 3 vacation spots which are between 200 miles and 500 miles from your home using the 'Family Vacation Ideas' website in the resource center. To check distances, use the 'Distance Calculator' website.

b) You will keep track of the weather and temperature conditions over the next 7 days by monitoring the weather conditions forecast in all 3 vacation spots. Use the 'Weather Watcher' website. Record all the information in a data table.

c) You will present your information about the weather in the form of graphs which will help compare temperatures forecast from the 3 destinations. You will use a program like Excel or an online graph generator.

d) You will use PowerPoint to present the information about the vacation spot. In the presentation, you will list the attractions of each spot, and make a persuasive speech about your choice of a final vacation destination.

e) You will conduct a survey among your classmates to help you pick your final choice. The results will be displayed using Excel charts and graphs.

RESOURCES

Family Vacation Ideas:

http://travelwithkids.about.com/od/topvacations/u/Family_Vacation_Ideas_UP.htm

This website will help you find vacation ideas by region, by season, by interest, or by the "ages and stages" of the family.

Distance Calculator

http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm

This website will help you find the distance between places.

Enter the name of the place from which you plan to start out, and then enter your vacation destination.

Be sure to click on both Distance as the Crow Flies and Distance by Land Transport to get both distances.

Weather Watcher:

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/currentweatherusnational/uscurrenttemperatures_large.html

This website will help you to track temperature, weather and driving conditions.

Near the top of the web page, right next to the Weather Channel logo, enter the name of the city for which you wish to check the temperature.

Once you click on the Enter/ Return button, then the current temperature appears.

Click on the tabs to find out the weather and temperature forecasts.

Graph Generator:

http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createAgraph/

This website generates different types of graphs.

Click on the picture of graph to select the type and use the tabs on the sides to fill in data and other information.

Alternately, use the Excel program to generate your graph.