Factual travel information is a useful method of learning how to conduct research.

Students need to be able to gather information and discern what is important and what is not. Recoujnting what happened on a trip is a useful method of engaging student interest while teaching important information skills.

The Activity
Student will recount a recently completed Eastern Mediterranean cruise. The students will create journals highlighting the ports visited and cruise events. Students will include an accounting of the cost of the cruise (not counting airfare).

Resources

• cruise itineraries
• atlases
• almanacs
• currency exchange information
• travel books

Allow the students to select a cruise that most interests them. One person may select a cruise that visits Egypt while another selects a cruise that focuses on the Greek isles. You may opt to have a minimum and maximum number of ports.

The journal should include the cost of the basic cruise plus excursions. Will you require them to list monies spent on gifts, t-shirts, etc.? Will you require "photos" from the excursions? How many entries must be included?

Students should include their impressions of the cities visited. "I always dreamed of visiting the Acropolis and was thrilled to stand on the top of the hill overlooking Athens."

You may want students to include a packing list. This will require them to investigate temperatures for the cruise. A cruise that leaves Italy in November will require different clothing for Genoa than it does for Alexandria, Egypt.

They may describe interesting persons they met on the trips. Who went on the trip with them? How did they feel when they had to practice the life boat drill?

This project works well when collaborating with computer, English, geography, or art teachers.