YOU BE THE TRAVEL AGENT

A Social Studies WebQuest on Canada

 

Introduction

You are a travel agent working for The World Wide Web Travel Agency. The agency has asked you to create a "travel page" on a Canadian province for a big advertising campaign that is attempting to attract tourists to visit Canada.

You will create a "Canadian Province Slide Show" for presentation to prospective tousits using ClarisWorks or Microsoft PowerPoint. Your  presentation will highlight the provincial attractions that will encourage tourists to visit that region of Canada.You will need to include any information that might be helpful for a toursist visiting your province for the first time. This information might include such  things as what the region is famous for, "not to be missed" sites, things to do, weather information, general facts on the province such as major cities, population, history, transportation systems, topography (the lay of the land), culture, sports, currency, monuments, museums, cities, historical sites, annual events, and anything else that you feel is important.

Remember that the purpose of your "slide show" will be to create interest in your province so that the tourist will be encouraged to visit. As a result, your presentation should be visually attractive and informative. Include some pictures that will help to illustrate the province's major attractions. You might even want to create a catchy travel slogan for your province.

1. Choose a Canadian province that you would like to learn more about. You may use the Internet resources listed below as well as any books, magazines, or brochures in helping you choose a province.
2. Decide which aspects of your province you would like to present in your slide show keeping in mind that your goal is to attract tourists to the province. Determine what it is about the province that would be of interest to tourists.
3. Once you have determined the content areas of your presentation, make a plan or outline of your presentation on paper. Each page will represent one slide. Place a heading at the top of each page to describe the topic of that page.
4. Do more indepth research on each topic. If you decide to work with another student, determine what role each student will perform. One student could be a Researcher whose job it is is to find information. The other student may be the Photographer who finds pictures to illustrate the information that the Researcer has come up with. Take notes as you do you research. Save pictures to your folder if you think that they might help illustrate each topic. Keep in mind that you must follow copyright laws and rules against plagarism.
5. You may use the scanner to scan photos or pictures that you would like to include in your presentation.
6. Decide what text you will use on your page. Keep in mind that while you are not writing an essay, the text should clearly explain the topic that you are presenting. Your presentation will be visual so don't include large blocks of text that people won't be able to read. Click here to see an example of too much information on a page.The text that you write should be concise and may help to further explain and illustration or picture - click here to see an example of a more concise slide.
7. Begin assembling your page. Look at it often in Slide Show mode to determine what it will look like when you present it on a screen or big screen television.

The purpose of a slide show is to illustrate a presentation that you are making on a specific topic so that your audience will remember what you are talking about. A slide show helps to reinforce the details of your talk with pictures and examples. Your audience will understand and remember your topic better if you have done a good job of creating a "picture which is worth a thousand words"! Think of your slide show as the "picture", but also remember that you must give your audience the details, in your speech, that the "picture" is illustrating. A slide show without the details of the spoken word is not acceptable.

Students will be graded on the quality of their slide show as well as the content of presentation. Have you revised your writing so that your finished product is reflective of your best effort? Do the slides help illustrate the main points of your presentation? Are your slides clear and easy to view and understand? Have you included enough information and pictures without creating a cluttered and difficult to read slide? Do you think that your presentation will capture the interest of your audience? Will they want to visit "your" province after your presentation? Would you be excited by this presentation?

While some students may choose to work in groups of two on this webquest, keep in mind that the content of the finished product must demonstrate the efforts of two students.

When your presentation is complete, you will discover that you have learned a great deal about a part of the country that you live in. In addition, you will have perfected your skills at using the Internet as a research tool and learned how to make a multimedia presentation.