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• Students will learn the importance of documenting themselves for a trip.
• Students will learn the importance of social studies while traveling.
• The student will develop a multimedia presentation using Photo Story 3 to inform others about the trip they would like to take in the USA.

§113.5. Social Studies, Grade 3.

(a) Introduction
(4) Throughout social studies in Kindergarten-Grade 12, students build a foundation in history; geography; economics; government; citizenship; culture; science, technology, and society; and social studies skills. The content, as appropriate for the grade level or course, enables students to understand the importance of patriotism, function in a free enterprise society, and appreciate the basic democratic values of our state and nation as referenced in the Texas Education Code, §28.002(h).

(b) Knowledge and skills
(5) Geography. The student understands the concepts of location, distance, and direction on maps and globes. The student is expected to:
(A) use cardinal and intermediate directions to locate places such as the Amazon River, Himalayan Mountains, and Washington D.C. on maps and globes;
(B) use a scale to determine the distance between places on maps and globes;
(C) identify and use the compass rose, grid, and symbols to locate places on maps and globes; and
(D) draw maps of places and regions that contain map elements including a title, compass rose, legend, scale, and grid system.

(6) Economics. The student understands the purposes of spending and saving money. The student is expected to:
(A) identify ways of earning, spending, and saving money; and
(B) analyze a simple budget that allocates money for spending and saving.

(14) Culture. The student understands the importance of writers and artists to the cultural heritage of communities. The student is expected to:
(A) identify selected individual writers and artists and their stories, poems, statues, paintings, and other examples of cultural heritage from communities around the world; and
(B) explain the significance of selected individual writers and artists and their stories, poems, statues, paintings, and other examples of cultural heritage to communities around the world.

(17) Social studies skills. The student communicates effectively in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to:
(A) express ideas orally based on knowledge and experiences;
(B) create written and visual material such as stories, poems, pictures, maps, and graphic organizers to express ideas; and
(C) use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation.

§126.3. Technology Applications, Grades 3-5.

(b) Knowledge and skills.
(11) Communication. The student delivers the product electronically in a variety of media, with appropriate supervision. The student is expected to:
(A) publish information in a variety of media including, but not limited to, printed copy, monitor display, Internet documents, and video; and
(B) use presentation software to communicate with specific audiences.

• Students will become familiar with location, distance, and direction on maps and globes.
• They will also build on a foundation in history, geography, economics, government, citizenship, culture, science, society, social studies skills and technology.

The students will research and create a multimedia presentation, using Photo Story 3, with all the facts of their planned trip. They will include:
• Maps and location of their site, distance traveled from their hometown
  
• Transportation options to reach their destination, and while there
  
• Hotel or other places of accommodation
  
• Places of recreation to visit: restaurants, parks, theme parks
  
• Places of interest: museums, historical sites
  
• Cultural places and people to see
  
• Create a budget that allocates money for cost and spending on the trip

• computers
• headsets with microphone
• Internet access,
• diverse search engines,
• Google Earth,
• Google Maps
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Excel
• Photo Story 3
• paper and pen

• Hold a classroom discussion to ask students where they would like to visit on their next trip.
• After selecting a set of places of interest, students brainstorm what attractions are in those places, naming cultural, historical and recreational sites.
• Then hold a brainstorming discussion on how much they think they would have to spend and how many miles would they travel.

1. Class discussion and brainstorming about a travel place of interest in the USA will be the opening window for our project.
   
   
2. After three or four sites have been decided upon, the teacher will divide her class accordingly into three or four groups depending on class size.
   
   
3. Teacher explains the project, passed out a handout with all the instructions including manager positions, requirements, and necessary tools.
   
   
   • Requirements for this lesson:
     • Students should all ready be familiar with using different search engines, Google Earth, copying and pasting information from the internet into a MS Word document and a PowerPoint, saving files and retrieving files on the school's server and be familiar with the Photo Story 3 program.
     
     
   • Manager assignments will be given as follows:
     • Geologists: will locate maps, locations, and distance; using Google Maps and Google Earth
       
     • Transportation Manager: will research transportation methods, using a variety of search engines on the Internet
       
     • Travel Agent: will search hotels and other places of accommodation using a variety of search engines on the Internet
       
     • Tourist Guide: will research recreational, cultural, and historical places of interest using a variety of search engines on the Internet
       
     • Accountant: will search prices and create a budget using Excel.
   
   
4. Students will save their findings in the school's server in a folder previously created by the teacher so the rest of the group to have access to the information.

Each student will create their own photo story with all of the information saved on the server from their group. They will demonstrate creativity and technology skills.

Students will show their multimedia projects to the class followed with a discussion on what a major role social studies plays in everyday life, including travel and recreation. The project managers will clarify the social studies involvement in each position.

The thoroughness of each students' research and findings as presented and their creativity will be graded using a rubric.

Students with learning disabilities will not be required to use Photo Story 3. They will create their multimedia presentation using PowerPoint or a MS Word document. The teacher and other students will work one-on-one with these students as necessary to help them retrieve the information from the server and with work on the actual project.

GT students can enhance their project by bringing in pictures or postcards from the location they selected, using the scanner to upload them to the project. GT students can also download MP3 music files on the Internet to enhance the music part of the project.

This actually can be an interdisciplinary lesson. Math, science, language arts, all apply.

E-Mail Coral Palmer!

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