Mr. P's Travel Agency

A WebQuest for Ninth Grade World History/World Geography I

Designed by

Scott M. Peterson
speterso@mail.pulaski.k12.va.us

Introduction

Mr. Peterson has started his own educational travel agency. The purpose of this agency will be to offer high school students a chance to travel to different parts of the world and learn about history. Mr. P feels like this will be a great experience and really help World History come "alive" for these students. Now that you have mastered World History I, Mr. P's Travel Agency would like to use your expertise in creating these educational expeditions. To get started, Mr. P will need you all to devise a list of the locations around the world that will help students learn about World History the most. What should the students see while they are in these cities? Why should they see them? What can they learn by visiting these sites?

The Task

Your job as one of Mr. P's Travel Agency consultants is to devise a list of five locations around the world that would be beneficial to studying World History I. You will use this information to plan a 10-day journey around the world in an effort to learn about world cultures as well as world history. When you are finished, you will present your proposed trip in a PowerPoint presentation to the other consultants.

The Process

Use the following steps and procedures to help guide you.

1.) Brainstorm a list of locations that are important topics/civilizations in World History I.

2.) Use a search engine such as www.google.com or www.yahoo.com to search for information about different cities that may be included in your package. Other web sites that may help:

General Sites:

Mr. P's Web Page: www.quia.com/pages/spetersowh1.html

Educational Tour Companies:

You may get ideas, but we want our company to offer something unique!

ACIS Educational Tours: http://www.acis.com/

Voyager Educational Tours: http://www.govoyageur.com/

PowerPoint Assistance:

http://www.microsoft.com/office/powerpoint/evaluation/tour/default.asp

3.) Narrow your list to the cities that you feel are the five most important educational locations.

4.) For each location, create a list of important and interesting sites for our customers to see. Remember, you will want to focus on providing a list of educational/historical points of interest (That is our goal!). You have a total of 10 days to spend on the trip. You may split those ten days anyway you want.

5.) Create a 10 slide PowerPoint Presentation about your educational trip. The PowerPoint presentation should be an itinerary for your trip. Please include a day-to-day listing of which city will be visited, what you plan to see in each city, as well as what you want them to learn by visiting this location. Visuals should also be shown of different sites that you will feature as well as a map showing the location of each destination. A list of credits for each resource that you use will also be required.

PowerPoint Requirements:

A. You must have ten slides total

B. Slides featuring each city that you want to visit including: At least 1 visual, Points of interest that you feel should be visited in that city, number of days, reason you feel this is an important city to visit to learn more about world history.

C. One slide of a map that shows the points of destination.

D. One slide that lists the resources that you used for this project.

6.) Present the trip to the other consultants

Evaluation

Each student will be graded using the following rubric.

 

1 point

2 points

3 points

4 points
PowerPoint Presentation Student did not meet any of the requirements of the PowerPoint Presentation Many of the requirements were missing Most of the requirements were included Student completed all requirements of the presentation
Project Turned in on Time?

*If project turned in later than three days there will be no points awarded

 3 Days Late 2 Days Late 1 Day Late Project Turned in on time
Did Student Justify Choice of Cities? Reasons for choice of cities was not made clear. Student did not include any educational basis for choosing the cities. Student did a fair job of explaining the educational basis for visiting each city Student did a good job of explaining the educational basis for visiting each city. Student did an exceptional job of explaining the reasons for visiting each city.
Choice of Cities Choice of cities was not based on World History I curriculum 1 or 2 of the cities were chosen based on WHI curriculum 3 or 4 of the cities were chosen based on the WHI curriculum All cities were chosen based on the WHI curriculum
Use of Class time Student did not use class time that was provided for the project. Class time was not used wisely Student did a fair job of using class time. A lot of class time was wasted. Student did a good job of using class time to complete the project-with a few exceptions Student did an exceptional job of using class time. No time was wasted in class.
Presentation Student did not present to the class/Presentation was unsatisfactory Student did a fair job of presenting their trip. Student did a good job of presenting theit trip. Student used excellent verbal skills in presenting their trip to the other consultants

Grading Scale

A=24-22 B=21-19 C=18-15 D=14-11 F= 10-0

Conclusion

You are now ready to get your passport, pack your bags and enjoy an educational summer get-away! Hopefully, one day you will get to travel to some of these places (if you haven't already) and the topics that we have discussed in class will truly come "alive" for you.

Credits & References

Clip Art: Microsoft Corporation

Last updated on August 15, 1999. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page