1. Students will learn historical and current information about various port cities.

2. Students will learn different aspect of weather and it affects on travel.

1. Worksheets and graphs by AIMS Finding Your Bearings (1990) Aims Education Foundation. pgs. 79-82

2. Internet access.

3. Newspaper

4. poster board for charts and markers

5. U.S. Map

This lesson requires about 8-10.5 hours. Steps 1 and 2 will take about 1/2 to 45 minutes. Step 3 will take 3-4 hours. Step 4 will take 2 hours total. Step 5 will take 1.5-2 hours. Step 6 will take 1-2 hours. Step 7 is optional.

Procedure:

Introduction: Students will learn as much as they can about their port city to be able to better decide what they should sell or buy in their shipping business. This lesson is a research based lesson with several projects to go along with the research.

Step 1 Brainstorm with the class and decide what are important topics or issues that you would need to know about a city to live there or to do business their. Have them think of the things they know about their own city. Put these topics and ideas on the board. You may want to turn these ideas or topics into specific questions that need to be answered so each group will be looking for similar information. (This will be helpful later in the lesson.) There are a few things you must have each group research to complete this lesson, current events in city, weather, major industries, population growth, imports and exports. Things like people, culture, climate, history, religion, human interests, government. (This is a short list. Students will come up with many more.)

Step 2 Teacher should provide a list of U.S. port cities to choose from. For example, New Orleans, Boston, New York, Green Bay, etc. Choose eight or ten depending of number of groups. Allow students to pick from a hat to make the selection process fair. Each group will find their city on a U.S. map.

Step 3 Students will then take their list of ideas and in their groups will research each of their cities. The groups can assign sections to each member. Each day the groups will meet and have time to research in class and in the library. The teacher will meet with the group Captains at the end of the designated time allowed on this project to make sure each group is on track.

Step 4 As part of the information gathered students will keep track of the weather in the city each group is studying. Newspapers will be brought in either by the students or the teacher. (Maybe your classroom already subscribes to a national newspaper.) The students will chart their cities forecast on a large chart in the room for other groups to use. The attached lesson plan by AIMS Education can be used as a guide. The graphs and charts are helpful. This will be done each day and the results will be discussed on the final day.

Step 5 Teams will also research current events in their port. Discuss the importance of knowing what is going on around you in the city you live. Each day the students can look in the national newspaper for some current events in their cities. (If they can not find some here, try the internet under the city's name; Each city should have a local newspaper on line.) By the end of the week each group should have enough information collected to put together a short radio or T.V. news broadcast. Each group will have 5-10 minutes to present their news for their city. They should use some sort of prop or visual aid and they should be creative. (You may want to show some news broadcasts in class as an example.)

Step 6 Students will prepare graphs (pie, bar, line, table, etc.) on the major industries, population growth and imports and exports of their city. Discuss the outcomes of each and what this might mean in junction with shipping in that city.

Step 7 Students will be given a chance to do an optional project or reports on the other information or additional information that was found.

1. Weather charts - (Criteria for success - each group must record accurate information daily)

2. Current Events - (Criteria for success - each group will have X number of current events. Group will use one prop or visual aid in their presentation.)

3. Students will turn in graphs - (Criteria for success = each group must prepare 3 graphs. Each graph must be easy to read and understand with a legend and labels.)

1. Geography - Location of port city.

2. Science - Weather charts.

3. Math - Weather charts, graphs.

4. Social Studies - Historical and current events of city.

1. Students can make flags of their city.

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