Travel Brochures
Unit Topic: The Galapagos Islands
Grade Level: Middle School
Basic Concepts: Descriptions, Classification, Persuasion
Content Areas: Geography, Science, Art, Language Arts
Time: 4 hours (Day 7 - 1/2 hours; Day 8 - 1 hour; Day 9 - 1/2 hour)
Objectives
Activity 1
Phase 1: The teacher will provide an assortment of travel brochures. After giving the students time to look through them, the class will discuss what aspects make a good travel brochure. Two important aspects of travel brochures are they encourage tourists to visit places and they include pertinent information that helps readers make informed decisions.
Materials: an assortment of travel brochures
Phase 2: The teacher should then focus the discussion on persuasive writing. The class should discuss how one writes persuasively and what constitutes persuasive language. Travel brochures need to be catchy, they need to encourage the reader to visit a specific place. How would one go about doing this? The teacher could write the students' ideas on the chalkboard.
Materials: chalkboard, chalk
Phase 3: Next, the students will be creating their own travel brochures about the Galapagos Islands. Each student will select one of the 13 main islands to focus his or her research on. Some students may wish to select the island from which their animal (from their previous animal research) came from since they may already know a bit about that island. Students should be encouraged to use the Internet to do their research, since there are many sites that include up-to-date information about the Galapagos. Other possible resources are books (fiction and non-fiction), magazines, newspapers, journals, and computer software. Students should also be encouraged to use information from their literature circle novels, if it is applicable.
Materials: computer with Internet connections, various resource materials
Phase 4: Once the research is completed, students are ready to begin work on the actual travel brochure. The recommended size is an 8x14 inch sheet of paper that is tri-folded; however, other sizes may be considered. Students should include a wealth of information about their island, anything that they feel a prospective tourist would want to know. Suggested items include:
A. major cities
B. tourist attractions
C. topography
D. vegetation
E. wildlife
F. marine environment
G. climate
H. historical sites
I. water activities
J. other activities on the island
K. culture
Students will be responsible for including both written information and visual images. Pictures can either be drawn by hand, images from a computer, or cut-outs from other sources-as long as the source is cited. Some of the work may need to be completed at home, as class time is limited.
Materials: paper, crayons/markers/colored pencils, magazines
Activity 2
Students will also be responsible for designing a second piece of "propaganda" for their island. Students may work with other students who have selected the same island for their travel brochure, although there should be no more than 3 students per group. Each group will choose a presentation form. Several ideas are listed below.
A. Make a travel poster
B. Write and perform a radio commercial
C. Create and perform a television commercial
D. Mock-interview an expert from the island
E. Design a set of postage stamps
F. Write and perform a song
G. Compose a poem
H. Student choice (discuss with teacher)
Materials: variable
Activity 3
To coincide with the interactive discussion about the different types of volcanoes and the formation of islands, students will be required to include in their travel brochures a section about how their island formed (see the lesson "The Formation of the Galapagos Islands").
Assessment: Students will be asked to keep a log of the work they do each day. This is to help the teacher keep track of the students' progress, since much of the work may be completed outside of the classroom. Students will also be evaluated on their final product, receiving an individual score for the travel brochure and a group score for the propaganda. Students should be given the rubrics ahead of time so that they know the criteria for assessment and evaluation. See the following rubric.
Extensions:
1. Students may wish to include a section about some of the issues facing their island such as El Nino, human inhabitation, introduced species, etc.
Resources:
None
Other Suggested Resources (* designates "youth-friendly"):
*Charles Darwin Research Station. (2-20-98). Charles Darwin Research Station. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.polaris.net/~jpinson/welcome.html.
Info about islands, issues affecting the Galapagos, what it's like to work at the Station, scientific reports, and conservation. Many (but not all) of the sites within the page are youth-friendly.
*Clark, D. & Giddings, A. (Producers and Directors). (1996). Galapagos Beyond Darwin [Film]. Available from Discovery Channel Video.
This video focuses on the present day Galapagos Islands, covering topics such as evolution, research, adaptation of species, and threats to the islands. Wonderful footage of many aspects of the islands.
*Ecuadortours. (2-16-98). The Galapagos Islands. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.ecuadortours.com/i_galapagos.html.
A website sponsored by ecuadortours.com. Provides very general information for tourists about the islands and the National Park and Marine Reserve.
*Ecuadortours. (2-16-98). General Island Description. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.ecuadortours.com/genlslde.htm.
Website run by ecuadortours.com. This section provides brief information about some of the main islands in the Galapagos.
*International Galapagos Tour Operators Association. (1-10-98). The Galapagos Islands: A World Heritage Site. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.igtoa.org/galapgs.htm.
Includes pictures, links, specific information about the islands, issues, references, climate, and National Park Rules. www.wwf.org/new/news/pr136/htm
*Interpretation International. (2-16-98). Discover Galapagos. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.discovergalapagos.com.
A tour company's home page. Begins with legend of the Galapagos. Leads into links about specific tours or general information about the islands.
Kawashima, H. (March 21, 1998). 7 Days of Galapagos. [On-line]. Available Internet: www.bekkoame.or.jp/~hirokawa/
Traveler's log of a 7-day journey through the Galapagos. Includes pictures and a map of the Islands.