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School: Byrd Middle School
Summary
In this real-world classroom experience students are given a task by their “boss” at ABS Travel Agency and are asked to create a “Vacation of a Lifetime.” Students will work in teams to collaborate, research, and problem solve with their peers, all while staying under a $5000 budget. After “travel agency representatives” have created their ideal vacation package, they will have to present their innovative ideas to their peers as if they were pitching/selling their vacation package to a client. Sit back and relax and be prepared to be wowed (and wish you had $5000 to go on a much needed vacation)!
TIPC Ratings
Approaching: Students were responsible for selecting the resources they needed to gather, evaluate, and use their information. Students did use teacher and peer support to aide in the acquisition and evaluation of materials and used the information in new situations. We think this lesson is approaching overall and could get to target, but would take some development on the student end before they had the needed skills to get there.
Ideal/Target: Throughout this lesson students had to effectively communicate and collaborate to reach a common goal – plan a vacation of a lifetime. Group norms were established to help facilitate their work and they had to frequently collaborate to create their product. In addition to the multiple experiences with collaboration, students had to work together to creatively present their information with their peers. Students worked in teams and self-selected a variety of technologies to share information and reflect on their work.
Approaching: Throughout this lesson, students used multiple resources to plan, design, and execute real-world problems. They had to use technology to help solve a problem and creatively communicate that solution with their peers.
Ideal/Target: Students had to apply critical thinking, research methods, and use 21st century communication tools to create an original product that was shared with their peers. Students had to work together to offer a novel solution to a real-world problem using modern technologies.
Student Artifact
Come to Cancun – Vacation of a Lifetime – 6th Grade Math from Kourtney Bostain on Vimeo.
