Introduction
The summer is here!! No more books, no more homework and more importantly, NO MORE
TESTS! You and three friends have decided to make your get-away, but get-away to
where? Your group has an allowance of $2,000.00 per person for a seven-day trip. The
following four suggestions have been made by your group:
Caribbean
Cruise 
Europe 
Disney World 
Island Resort in Barbados 
Now it's up to the
group to decide which trip will fit your budget.
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The Task
Develop a presentation explaining how you made your vacation choice. Include the
following:
- A group table showing comparisons between round trip airfares, lodging, food and
entertainment per person per trip.
- Keep individual notebooks (to be turn in separately) detailing your
research for the assigned trip.
- Choose best travel date.
- Comprise a list of recreational activities available per destination.
- Show estimated travel time per destination.
- Develop a spreadsheet showing daily expenses per person per trip.
- Once your group decides on a vacation, locate some history (to be included in your
presentation) about the destination.
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The Process 
The following suggests steps to take to complete this project. While doing this
assignment, ask yourself, "What values are most important to ensure optimum enjoyment
of my vacation?" Most of all, have fun with this! Vacation planning is a process you
will do over and over throughout you life.
- Establish group responsibilities (Hint: Each person takes one trip and researches
each category).
- Set deadlines for conglomeration of information.
- When deciding travel dates, consider most economical airfare (i.e. weekend travel
vs. weekday), accommodations costs (i.e. extended stay discounts),
recreational activities (make sure you consider weather conditions).
- When deciding on a trip, consider travel time spent vs. time available at your
destination.
- List individual criteria's for the trip and from those lists develop a group criteria
list (i.e. desired activities).
- Develop a group rating system to speed the process of elimination (i.e. develop
"pros. vs. cons." list).
- Once trip has been decided upon, designate individual responsibilities for the planning
process (i.e. airline reservations, booking accommodations, activity coordinator,
etc.). Decide upon individual roles for group presentation. Be creative!
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Resources
Travel
Preview Travel Home Page
- provider of branded online travel services for leisure and small business travelers.
Air Travel Pro - quick and simple
air travel guide with links, tips, and amusing stories.
Flight
Tracker - source of real-time flight data; shows and tracks the status of pre-takeoff,
in progress, and recently completed flights for major cities across the United States.
Destination
Cruise Guide -
includes an interactive cruise line and Caribbean island finder and a virtual tour of a
ship.
Europe Today Travel & Tourist information -
covering 16 European countries, regions, resorts, hotels, car hire, adventure travel.
Walt Disney World - official
website for all vacation planning and ticket information, and hours of operation.
Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia - official site of
the Barbados Tourism Authority. One stop site for all tourism information on Barbados.
Weather 
Use the summary statements in the Intellicast
Weather Almanac to get information on the general weather conditions in a particular
month for your region.
International Research Institute for Climate
Prediction (IRI) - research to continually assess and develop seasonal-to-interannual
climate forecasts, and to foster the application of such climate forecasts to the explicit
benefit of societies.
The Historical Weather
Database provided by the Washington Post allows you to search for monthly average
temperature and precipitation figures for your area.
Maps
Capitals.com - atlas and descriptions of
countries.
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Evaluation
Your final project will be evaluated on the following criteria:
- Do you have all the components of the project? (25 points)
- Is your comparison table easy to understand and draw conclusions from? (10 points)
- Do you have the necessary data in your presentation that supports your decision? (10
points)
- Is the presentation clear and easily understood? (10 points)
- Is the presentation informative, persuasive and creative? (10 points)
- Does your final project indicate that you accessed, evaluated, and used a variety of
information sources to complete the project? (20 points)
- Are your individual research notebooks submitted in a clear, easily understood
framework? (15 points)
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Conclusion
After completing your project, reflect on the math you used.
- What math skills did you use for this project?
- How did math assist you in your decision making?
- What other subjects did you use?
- Was there only one right answer (only one vacation spot to fit your criteria)?
Why do you think so?
- How difficult was it to incorporate the criteria used for selecting your vacation based
on a individual $2,000.00 budget? Could you have done it for less?
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Reflection
- How well does this project relate to real life events? Do you think the knowledge
acquired in this project can be used in other situations? How so?
- Think about the sources of information you used in this project (i.e. Internet).
Do you think they improved your final project?
- Consider your experiences as a team member. What did you learn about your own team
skills? What did you do well and what could you improve?
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Notes to the Teacher
Lesson Title: The Vacation Of Your Dreams Awaits!!!!!
Curricular Area: Mathematics
Grade Level: 6th and 7th
Length of Lesson: Approximately 3-4 class periods
Goal/Purpose: To give students the opportunity to apply mathematics to real
world situations and produce meaningful information that can be applied to decision
making.
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