How would you spend your dream vacation with a budget of $5,000?

How would you spend your dream vacation with a budget of $5,000? For this activity, students get to go on their dream vacation! They have to buy plane tickets and hotel rooms, find attractions to visit, explore new restaurants, and get out of their comfort zone and explore the world! Students will also have to budget all of their money, with the goal of getting as close to $5,000 as possible. Finally, students will organize their project using any resource they want (poster, powerpoint, etc.) and present their information to the class!

1) Driving Question

The question we decided to use for our inquiry project is “What would your dream vacation be if you had a budget of 5,000 dollars?” This question will have multiple parts to where students will have to figure out how to budget their money and consider the following expenses: airfare, meals, housing, tourist attractions, car rentals etc. This question is considered an in-depth study as the answer is not black and white. It requires research on several different websites and also depends on where the student would like to travel.

There are several solutions to this problem as we only restricted the students from traveling around the Midwest. This gives the students the opportunity to explore all 7 continents and give them the ability to figure out traveling expenses through multiple different websites.

One of the main points of this activity is to get the students to explore new places, so they will not be allowed to travel anywhere in the Midwest in order for them to explore the world and get out of their comfort zone. This point ties in with social studies; it would be great to do this activity after our class has learned about other countries so the students will already have some knowledge on the place they are visiting.  

Another main point of this activity is for students to begin to learn how to budget money, which is related to math. That is why students must factor in not only plane tickets and hotel prices, but also three meals a day, snacks, souvenirs, activities, etc. This will help students realize how much they will be able to do on their vacation given their budget, and also informs them on how much these things cost in the real world. Students can record their information in any way, but they will have to present, so they need to organize their information in a way that makes sense to their classmates.

After two weeks of working on this project during class, the students will all present what they have decided to do for a dream vacation. This can be in the form of a poster, powerpoint, video, prezi, etc. This DQ gives the students the ability to present their findings and really show their understanding for budgeting. The students will also be able to ask questions at the end of each presentation and the presenter will be able to explain why they chose the country/state/region they decided to vacation in. The students can evaluate and analyze when it comes to their explanation on why they chose to use certain websites over others. For example, during their presentation a student can explain why they decided to use prices off of travelocity.com versus expedia.com and evaluate the cost efficiency of this.

2) Grabber

For the grabber, I found many websites that allow viewers to get a 360 degree view of a certain attraction/popular destination site. Here, I have attached a Youtube playlist where the creator allowed viewers to move the direction of the camera (viewers can move by using the circle at the top left hand corner of the YouTube video) to get different views and angles. I found another website that is provides a similar experience, where viewers get  to explore more than 20 areas of Hawaii. Another source I will provide for my students is Google Maps. Although it might not be as unique as the above two sources, it allows people to go anywhere in the world. Many places do not have virtual tours, so if students want to explore one of those places, they can look on Google Maps and get a feel for that destination by looking at monuments, popular tourist locations, and street life. Finally, I’ve found many VR apps students could download on their iPads for any destination that interests them. The VR apps allow students to move their head in all different directions and make it feel like they are in that location.

While cadet teaching, I did an activity asking students how would they spend their spring break given a certain budget. The kids had a lot of fun with it, but they didn’t know where they wanted to get. By providing these sources for my future students, they will have the opportunity to explore different places around the world and not spend time trying to think of a fun, unique place to go. Of course, they can research other destinations that I don’t have a certain link for, but they might find a place that they want to travel to that they might not have otherwise chosen because of the resources I provided.

3) Culminating Activity

Students will; explore/research different places to travel, decide how long they will stay, find plane tickets and hotels, plan fun activities, and budget in money for food (at least three meals a day), souvenirs, activities, etc. They will also need to learn about the area's climate and make a handmade postcard for the students to pass around during the presentation. After these steps, they will present their vacation plan in the form of a powerpoint, poster, pamphlet, or come up with another medium to present on/with. The students must include all of the information they gathered in their presentation along with pictures of their destination, attractions, etc. (students can use pictures off the internet along with hand drawn pictures if they choose). The idea of this project is to convince other classmates to want to also vacation at their dream destination. Students should come prepared on their vacation spot, as other students have the opportunity to ask questions about their spot.

For this project, students can collaborate with the other students in ways such as navigating hotel, car rental, and plane ticket websites, communicating on why they chose a certain destination or certain attraction spots, and help each other with budgeting. However, the students will pick their own destination, restaurants, and activities, because this is a chance for students to explore places they want to explore and experience new things. Students might not be able to be as creative or express their own interests if this was a group project. Although this activity is meant to be individual, some students have never explored hotel websites, for example, and might need help with that, so the teacher should encourage students to help their peers if need be.

The teacher will decide how much the students learned from this activity by their final presentations. Teachers will be able to tell how much they researched their vacation spot and activities based off of the facts they present to the class, tell how much time they spent working on the project, and tell the level of the students enjoyment during the project.