Project: Passport!

Quick! Grab your passport and throw some clothes in a suitcase! Are you ready for an adventure?! Your editor-in-chief, Mr. Scoops, at Sixth Grade Travel Bug Digital Publishing, just gave you the chance of a lifetime- you get to write your very own digital travel book and have it featured on the Sixth Grade Travel Bug Digital Publishing website! You have six weeks to complete your worldwide travel and report back to Mr. Scoops all about your chosen country! There is so much to see and so much to write about, like the people, the history, historical figures, agriculture, geography, and more. It may help you to remember what you learned in Mrs. Rodriguez's sixth-grade social studies class about how different but similar other countries' cultures can be to our own. You better head to the digital airport. Adventure awaits! 

Your task as a junior travel journalist is to, after choosing a country of interest, create a digital travel book that celebrates your country utilizing online research and tools. The objective of this project is to allow you to use your organizational and research skills to gather required and interesting information and present it in a systematic and professional digital form. Your second task is to create a physical map of your country (remember that a physical map shows the physical features of an area), highlighting several places of interest to pique the interest of other world travelers who may want to visit your country someday. April 24th will be "Around the World in 80 Minutes" Day, and you will briefly present your Project: Passport! digital travel books to your fellow junior travel journalists. My hope for you all after this project is that you have more confidence in yourselves, your research methods, and your digital storytelling, as well as respect and appreciation for other cultures. Happy travels!

Steps:

1. Go to Signup Genius using the QR code on the Smartboard or by clicking the link below. Choose the country in which you will be doing your project. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FA4AE2BA3FACF8-46782803-project
2. Begin your research as a travel journalist about your country using the research website links provided below. (You may use other websites for your research but make sure they are credible and reliable sources like we have talked about in class.)
3. Use the Research Checklist to guide you in your research. This checklist will give you a great starting place for your research. Use the provided graphic organizer to help organize all your information. Use as many copies of the graphic organizer as you need because you will see they will come in handy for many purposes during this project. You will be required to show me at least three pages of the graphic organizers to ensure that you are on track to finish your project on time.
4. Create a login for your Book Creator account to begin to create your “travel book”. Creativity counts! Your book should be no more than 12 pages. https://bookcreator.com/
5. Separately, create a physical map of your country (we will hang them around the classroom for “Around the World in 80 Minutes” Day.) Remember: a physical map includes bodies of water, mountains, rivers, land elevation, etc. *Include major cities and the capital. **After exploring your country on Google Earth, https://earth.google.com/ and Virtual Field Trips with Google Arts & Culture https://artsandculture.google.com/story/how-to-take-a-virtual-field-trip/QgUxjvlk7ChgnQ?hl=en to select three landmarks or places of interest that you do not want your readers to miss when they visit because they are so amazing. Create a QR code, using QR Code Generator, https://www.qr-code-generator.com/, for each location that connects to a reliable source of information and pictures about the location.
6. As you go through this process you should follow the Project Checklist to make sure you have completed all your tasks.
7. On, April 3, halfway through the project timeline, I will meet with each of you briefly to check your progress and to see if you need any assistance.

Research websites:

Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/

Britannica Kids https://kids.britannica.com/scholars

Fact Monster https://www.factmonster.com/

DK Find Out! https://www.dkfindout.com/

Jstor https://www.jstor.org/

National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/

National Geographic Kids https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

National Geographic Education https://education.nationalgeographic.org/

National Geographic VR (if you have access to VR) https://www.meta.com/experiences/2046607608728563/

Pixabay (images) https://pixabay.com/

Grading will be based on the rubric provided below.

Book Organization: 25 points

Book Quality of Information: 25 points

Map & QR Code Usage (3): 20 points

Internet Use/ Time Management: 10 points

Pre-Writing Graphic Organizers (3): 10 points

Oral Presentation: 10 points

Rubric

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TF2hX7Ega1Z5_gXKP7QN8rjrvDlyKvnj/view?usp=drive_link

Was traveling the world all you would thought it would be? How different was our American culture to the culture of your country? How were they similar? Despite living on opposite hemispheres, we tend to all hold the same human values: love, family, shelter, and survival. I hope you have learned a little more about the world and the people in it. Old Mr. Scoops was thrilled with all of your hard work. The books were all a huge success and he couldn't pick a favorite! He was hoping he could get you to write another feature for another publication he is working on. Who is ready to do the whole process over again? No? When you have free time in between assignments, please walk around the classroom with your phones or iPads to scan more of the QR codes on the maps of the countries you may want a stamp in your passport to see!

TEKS: 

1. Social Studies.6.19.A
2. Social Studies.6.19.C
3. Social Studies.6.20.A
4. Social Studies.6.21.B                                                                                                                                                                  Objectives: Students will be able to apply critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired through established research methodologies from a variety of valid sources, including technology. The student will differentiate between, locate, and use valid primary and secondary sources such as oral, print, and visual material and artifacts to acquire information about various world cultures. The student will use geographic tools to collect, analyze, and interpret data. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student will incorporate main and supporting ideas in verbal and written communication based on research.