SUBJECT: Geography

GRADE: High School

TECHNOLOGY: Word Processing/Desktop Publishing

Creating a Travel Brochure

Most appropriate for 9th-grade geography students. This group may view the study of geography as rote memorization of facts and figures about other countries without considering the unique cultural and geographic aspects of those areas. This lesson allows students to study other countries without the traditional "book-learning" approach.

Objectives:

This lesson will allow students to:

Select 5 countries (on one continent) to research.

Using resources available on the World Wide Web, research those countries in order to obtain information that will be included on a "travel brochure" which advertises a tour of those countries.

Using a word processing program, plan and create a fake travel brochure advertising a tour of those countries. The brochure will include a tour schedule, brief country histories, cultural and geographical information, and "tourist" points of interest.

Materials:

Access to the World Wide Web. The instructor may wish to provide a list of possible "jumping off" sites for the student to browse for information.

Access to a word processing program on which the travel brochure can be planned, written and edited.

Instructions as provided by the instructor (see description below)

S70 Lesson Plan 3

Page 2

Description of Lesson:

Students will begin by choosing any five countries on one continent to research for the project.

Using the World Wide Web, students will visit sites that have information about the chosen countries and record whatever data they see fit to include in the travel brochure. This information should include pictures, historical points, geographical data, cultural facts, etc. - anything that is feasibly included in "real" tourist brochures.

With the available information, create a "tour" of these countries to be held over a given time period of the instructor's choosing (two weeks, a month, etc.). The tour should highlight various 'spots' in each country and should be physically possible; that is, allowable within the constraints of time and distance.

Using a word processing program, create a travel brochure (no more than six pages) that includes a description of the tour as well as summaries of the information obtained about each country and salient facts about each "tour stop" to be made. Students should also include an additional page listing the web sites they visited for research.

Evaluation Procedure:

If the lesson is completed successfully, student will:

1. Produce a "travel brochure" of no more than six pages that describes a fictitious tour of five countries researched by the student. In addition to the tour itinerary, the brochure should include facts and figures about each country, including whatever geographical data, pictures and cultural/historical information the student wishes to include. The student will also provide a list of all the web sites he/she visited for research purposes.