Take a Vacation to Washington D.C.

A WebQuest for 5th Grade
Language Arts/ Math

Introduction

You are an employee at JCM travel agency. As part of a summer bonus program, your boss has presented each employee with the challenge of creating a dream vacation package for his parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Upon presenting a PowerPoint presentation, your boss will decide which strategy group provided the most suitable vacation for his parents. The strategy group chosen will receive a bonus of $10,000 (In the case of the classroom, the students will receive a pizza lunch with the teacher and one week of no homework). Your responsibilities will include putting together the vacation package while incorporating each of their personal interests and hobbies. Together, with the other members of your strategy group, you have decided to explore travles to Washington D.C. You feel that Washington D.C. offers both an educational and enjoyable experience.

Task

Your strategy group's task is to design an itinerary that tours various sites, while working within realistic constraints (budget), for a 5-day vacation to Washington D.C. for the parents of your boss.

You are going to come up with a daily schedule of places to see, eat, and sleep in Washington D.C. for the couple that only has 5 days to do as much as possible. Ideally, the trip should cost no more than $1000. Their airfare & transportation have already been paid for by your boss. It does not need to be taken out of the budget.

Your strategy group will incorporate the husband's and wife's individual interests and desires into the vacation plans so that they are both satisfied. One of them might want to see museums, while the other wants time to shop or visit family. Compromise will be necessary from your group when palnning the vacation so the couple can utilize their time wisely.

Process

First, you will be researching many aspects of Washington D.C., including tourist attractions, climate, and leisure activities.

The steps to completing this project are as follows:

1. You will be assigned a strategy group of four people. The teacher will determine your role in the group. Each person will be responsible for researching a specific task for the "perfect" vacation to Washington D.C. One person is going to collect and record data about the climate to determine the best time to visit. Another group member will research the food and lodging possibilities for the vacation. The last two group members will research the musuems and attractions available to visit.

2. First, your group needs to read the list of interests for the husband and wife to begin planning where they might want to visit.

Husband	Wife
Vietnam Memorial	shopping
Mount Vernon	Ford's Theatre
Smithsonian Institute	relatives
White House	dining
Lincoln Memorial	Lincoln Memorial
Washington Monument	Washington Monument

3. Look over the following sites to find information about the places the couple might like to visit on their Washington D.C. vacation. Be sure to look at the costs associated with attending some of these memorials or museums. Order your list from favorite to least favorite based on what you know about their personal interests.

Lincoln Memorial
Arlington National Cemetary
Washington Monument
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Smithsonian Institute
The White House
Washington D.C. Monuments, Memorials & Museums
Washington D.C. Tour Guide Site #1
Washington D.C. Tour Guide Site #2
Washington D.C. General Information
Washington D.C. Weather

4. Next, as a team, you will find possible (affordable) places to eat at Washingtonian or Digital City and find lodging at Washington D. C. for the five days the couple will be there.

5. Create your team itinerary by using this website as a guide.

Make sure to consider the following checklist in planning your trip:

When is the best time to visit? Write travel date on itinerary.

Where will the couple stay?

What will this trip cost the couple? Make sure to stay within the budget.

What will your couple's daily schedule be?

Did your group satisfy the couple's individual interests?

6. Present your final itinerary in the form of a PowerPoint presentation (Remember we have done several of these in class before.) Be sure to include slides showing your group's choice of lodging, restaurants, climate, and sites to visit.

Evaluation

Your strategy group will be graded on this project using the following three point rubric.

	Developing 1	Proficient 2	Exemplary 3
Group Exhibits Cooperative Teamwork	Very little group effort	Moderate teamwork	Excellent collaboration
Extent to Which Both Travelers Needs Are Met	Very little of the couple's interests were met	Some, but not all, of the couple's interests were met	All of the couple's interests were met
Working Within Constraints (5 days - $1000)	Very little of the constraints were followed	The team worked with one or some of the constraints	Team did not exceed budget constraints
Quality and Description of Trip	Itinerary lacks creativity	Itinerary shows some effort and creativity	Itinerary included many creative elements
Presentation of Your PowerPoint	PowerPoint lacks valuable information	PowerPoint exhibits some information and structure	PowerPoint demonstrates groups well organized thoughts and itinerary

Conclusion

For this project, you will be responsible for planning a trip to Washington D.C. for your bosses parents. Keep in mind, you will need to take into account his parents individual interests in order to plan an effective, enjoyable, and stress-free vacation. After completing this assignment, your group will have learned about a multitude of historic sites in the great providence of Washington D.C.

Credits & References

The Washington D.C. template was taken from the Design Patterns page of the EdTech 570 Webquest Page.

The Monument picture on the top of this page was provided by an image search on the search engine, google.com.

Additional WebQuest training materials and examples can be found on the The WebQuest Page.

"We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL."

Last updated on July 6, 2003