Implementation of ‘Time Travel Agency’ (SOI-MT-36)
Even though the original learning scenario was aimed to reach out learning outcomes in English, the same idea and the same links from the Europeana collection were used to tackle Maths concepts, related to topics of time, distance and money. Year 5 students were invited to pretend to be a tour guide for one day. They had to plan a one-day itinerary and create a brochure that would attract tourists to come for the tour.
Travel guide: students designing their own brochure
The lesson started with a discussion about what information should be included in the brochure. They agreed that the brochure should include:
- Points of interests
- Point of departure
- The cost of the tour
- What will be included in the tour
- Duration
Brainstorming session
They were then encouraged to think of ways how they make the tour more attractive. Students came up with various ideas. Such as including a type of offer; for instance, kids can join the tour for free or include a free meal.
Discussion
The discussion proceeded on things that they needed to consider for the cost of the tour to be reasonable. Students were encouraged to ‘Think, Pair and Share’ ideas. They had to find out the cost of the fuel that would be needed to travel from one place to another. They were provided with information about an approximate price for fuel per 15km. Students got to the conclusion that they had to find the distance between one place and another to determine the cost. The cost of the fuel from one place to another had to be multiplied by two, as they had to consider the way back.
Finding some pictures
Students had the opportunity to browse some pictures from the Europeana portal. Students were encouraged to choose between planning an itinerary in the United Kingdom, Austria or Slovenia. They were grouped in pairs and each group chose a particular country. Some students realized that the three places that they were planning to include in the brochure were far from each other and a lot of time was going to be spent on travelling.
Hence, they had to alter their programme. Students also decided about the type of meal that was going to be offered. Some students were concerned about the budget so they decided to include only a sandwich and a bottle of water. Others believed that it would be more noteworthy to give the opportunity to tourists to taste some traditional food in a local restaurant and hence they had to consider a higher amount of expenses than their classmates. When they decided on the places to be visited and worked out the expenses they could then cut out some pictures of the landmarks and create a brochure on cardboard paper.
Presenting the brochure
The lesson concluded with a ‘Show and Tell’ activity where students, in pairs, presented their brochure and discussed the process that led them to the price of the tour. Then each pair of student could write their places included in the brochure on Travelmap to record the itinerary.
Conclusion
The most expensive tour was the one in which the distance between one place and another was the longest. So students reasoning were satisfactorily achieved. Students could relate Maths to everyday life while learning about interesting landmarks of other countries.
Points of reflection
Initially, the plan was that students used their Travelmap on their tablets. However, due to technical issues, this had to be avoided. Some of the students found it hard to find the cost of fuel for a 3-digit distance. Since the time allocated for this activity was only 2 hours, students did not have the opportunity to browse the Europeana portal to find the landmarks themselves, which would have been more interesting. They had some pictures printed out and they had to choose from them.
Did you find this story of implementation interesting? Why don’t you read about the related learning scenario?
- Time Travel Agency created by Katalin Lőrincz
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