TRAIN ACROSS AMERICA
Our first project-based learning task that incorporates social studies, math, and language arts is Train Across America. Students will be traveling from San Diego to New York. They will have (imaginary) $3,500 to spend to get from here to there in ten days. They must make 9 stops. They must spend all of their imaginary money. They will:
* Learn how to write a check
* Learn how to keep a ledger and balance a check book (math)
* Research their route and pick different stops each day
* Research at least 3 historical people or places in the city/state they stop in for
the day
* Write at least one paragraph telling about their day (creative writing)
Students will have ample class time every day to work on this project. If they do not finish the day we are working on in class they should bring it home to finish it so they do not get behind.
For those students that brought their orange folder home to finish up day 1 they need to:
1.) Write any check/s for items they "purchased" during this day in their checkbook. If they "bought" a train ticket for example and ate dinner at Blaze Pizza, they should have written two separate checks for the amounts they found online.
2.) They need to also have those amounts subtracted on their ledger so they know how much "money" they have left to spend for the rest of their trip. They started the day with $3,500.00.
3.) They have an outline form where they are to write where they are stopping, what city/state they are in, the population of the state or city, the capital of the state, governor, and 3 interesting things about that state. They will use this graphic organizer/outline to help them write their paragraph for what they "did that day".
4.) Students will be creative and write about what they did on the make believe visit. They will weave the information from number 3 into their writing. For example they might write something like;
What a great day! After getting off the train in Las Vegas, Nevada, which has a population of about three million people, I was eager to check into my hotel and head over to see the Hoover Dam. The Hoover Dam was built during the Great Depression. That was a time when many people were looking for work doing basically anything. The tour was very informative and I couldn't believe it only cost fifteen dollars! I didn't want to be late to the Luxor to see the Blue Man Group so I had to hurry back. ... etc
