Geography Project - Download as DOC

							                                    Geography Project
                                    Learning Vacation

Due Date: _______________________

Introduction:
You have been selected as a final candidate for a promotion in your company, America’s A-1
Travel Planning Agency. The main activity of the company is to prepare package deals for
tourists to travel to places of historical significance within the United States.

You are knowledgeable, personable, intelligent, and have a great personality. You have
everything going for you, as you love your job and the benefits associated with it. You have a
good salary, one free trip per year, and your own comfortable office with a computer that gives
you access to information from all over the U.S. You REALLY want this promotion!!

The Task:
The Board of Directors of the company has asked each final candidate for the new job to make a
presentation to the board, of a package that they can arrange for a learning vacation.

The vacation must be to a place where you can learn about something that is not common to your
own area (not within the state of Texas). The place you select must have some historical
significance prior to 1877 and be within the United States. There are lots of possibilities—the
more creative the better.

The trip must be a week in total length and include both educational information and purely fun
activities. In the package you may include pictures and a variety of information. You know the
members of the Board of Directors are very interested in geography and history, and will
want to see more than just a typical tourist commercial.

The Resources:
All sources must be cited at the end of your presentation (a copy must be turned in). Within these
citations, be sure to include the name of the article (or book), author (or sponsoring
company/government component), and website (be sure not to use search engines as a source,
but instead the place where they lead you). I would recommend you going to www.bibme.org to
create your bibliography.

The Process:
Step One: Select a location in the United States that you would like to visit. Remember this place
must be historically important.
Step Two: On paper, make an outline of what you wish to include in your project/presentation.
This should include at least the following sorts of things:
1. Travel and hotel arrangements…Research if it is within driving range (if so, how do you get
there from our town) or how else you could get there? Describe this. Where would the people
that take this vacation stay?
2. Where is this place located? How big is it? Include a map. What is the terrain like?
3. What will the weather be like? (especially information about temperatures and precipitation)
4. What are some of the historic sites you could visit? Where are the locations of these sites in
relation to where you are staying? What can you see at these historic sites?
5. What are some other activities that can be done in this area?
Step Three: Research the information (online should be the easiest way to complete this.)
Step Four: Design a presentation outlining the trip that you have planned. This
must include all parts of your research. I will expect to see a 7 day plan! You
will present to the Board of Directors (your class and teacher). Either a poster, a
PowerPoint presentation, or a student-created website must accompany your
spoken presentation. Be sure that your poster, PowerPoint, and/or website uses short phrases, not
paragraphs and pages and pages of information. Remember the Board of Directors will want you
to tell them a lot more than they see within your poster, PowerPoint, and/or website.

The Evaluation
A rubric will be used to grade this project. I will be looking for a seven-day trip plan (which
includes information from 1-5 from Step 2 & 3), a list of sources used, the speech that you give,
creativity, inclusion of a detailed map, and various elements such as artistic (poster), 6 by 6 rule
(two computer options), and such.

Learning Advice
Remember the situation. It is a lot easier to research and write about an area that you do in fact
have some interest in. Your job is to convince the Board to hire you, and enthusiasm and
preparation are very important.

Be original, realistic, and accurate.

Have fun!