Intitial idea for a WebQuest

For the past 2 years, this year makes 3, I have taught the Introduction to Algebra courses at our school. This course is quite different from the other two courses that I normally teach, AP Calculus and Pre Calc Honors. Different in content as well as students. I have approached the Intro class a little differently than earlier teachers of Intro. I use a lot of hands on and project based learning. Many of the assessments I give are very similar to the projects. Portfolios, computer based and even personal demonstrations. One of the only times I give a standard test is for their final exam. But I have found that many, if not all, of the students do very poorly on their final. I have been trying to find a way to check their learning without giving them a multiple choice test to end the semester.

One of the ideas I've been pondering is giving the students a project to complete for their semester exam. We spend a semester learning about many real world math skills so I think I will try to incorporate these into the semester project. The WebQuest I will be trying to put together is "Planning a Family Vacation."

For this project, I plan to have students shop for a new car, have them calculate taxes and licenses and get the total cost of their new vehicle. I then thougt about having them drive this new vehicle to 4 or 5 different cities. Using the MPG data from their new car and the current cost of gas and the distance in between cities. I think we can calculate driving costs. Some other ideas include having the students find activities to do in each city, find hotels in each city and determine the total cost of the trip. I also might incorporate some banking and lending info to see if they could afford their trip or how much would they have to take a loan out for.

I think working on a project, incorporating all the skills we will work on over the semester will give the students a better chance of success on their finals.