Overview

In this lesson, students learn about a state as they create a travel plan, write postcards and research locations in the selected states.

Road trip

Lesson plan information

Teacher guide

Objectives

• Students will develop a travel plan for a trip across their state or other states.
• Students will write "postcards home" about their travel destinations.

How to begin

1. Save the document Student directions to your classroom computers. Adjust the directions as needed for your lesson. When presenting your lesson to the students, have them use the student directions sheet as a jump point into the activity.
2. Brainstorm with the students, and list on the overhead projector or whiteboard all of the places they have visited within your state. Ask them what they know about each of the locations. They may know a lot, or their knowledge may be limited to what they have seen from the freeway.
3. Discuss the importance of knowing the geography of your state and that of the various communities, towns, and cities within the state.

Resources and web links

• Student directions
• Postcard sample
• Assessment rubrics

Student activity

Description

In this activity, you will learn about various towns, communities, and cities within your state by planning a two-week trip. During your trip you must:

• Visit one or more major cities with populations of 1,000,000+.
• Visit two or more cities with population between 500,000 and 999,999.
• Visit one or more minor cities with population of 100,000-499,999.
• Visit one or more towns with population between 20,000 and 99,000.
• Visit the state capital.
• Visit two or more other areas of interest within the state.

Step 1: create a travel plan

• Software: Microsoft MapPoint
• What to do
  Use MapPoint to create your travel plan

1. Open Microsoft MapPoint, and create a route using the Route Planner tool.
2. Enter the locations you wish to visit, and plan the route you wish to take.
3. Under Tools, select Find Nearby Places. This will show you many interesting attractions.
4. On your route, calculate the miles between locations.
5. Calculate how many hours and/or days you plan to stay at each location.
6. Save your map and route plan.

Step 2: write postcards home

• Software: Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft MapPoint, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Encarta
• What to do
  Use Publisher to create postcards home from stops along your route

For each stop, you will write one postcard home using Microsoft Publisher. Each postcard should include:

• Location
• Date
• Miles driven since last postcard (location)
• Number of days you've been at the location
• Interesting sights at the location
• Place you plan to go next
• Picture—if possible—of the location (Hint: You can search the Web or Encarta for pictures.)
• Latitude and longitude of location (Hint: Use the Location Sensor under the Tools menu in MapPoint.)

Create a postcard

1. Open Publisher.
2. Select a postcard template and color scheme. You will use the same template and color scheme for each of your postcards.
3. Enter the required information in the list above using complete sentences in a narrative format.
4. Check to make sure you have included all required information.
5. Save your postcard.

Step 3: complete your trip, and record it

• Software: Microsoft MapPoint, Microsoft Publisher
• What to do

When you have completed your trip, print all postcards, your MapPoint map, and route planner.

Ways to extend the student activity

• This lesson may be used for the home state of your students, or each student or group of students can be given a different state.
• Have students create budgets for their trips, in addition to the travel plans and postcards.

Assessment

This lesson is geared towards familiarizing students with their state. Read each postcard, and ensure that interesting sights are included from that location. A checklist or rubric can be used to check off the items to include on both the route planner and the postcards home. A good source for rubrics is Rubistar. Visit the Rubistar Web site.

This content is reprinted with permission from Microsoft. For additional content, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/education/default.mspx.