The Dream Vacation Project for Computer Class

One common comprehensive project that I use to check students is to have them produce a "My Dream Vacation" project. They are told to make a cover page in a word processor. It should have a border, graphics and pictures, and larger font sizes for the titles and more normal font sizes for their name and course information. Usually I would want a border on such a cover page. After the cover page they are to use a word processor to write 2-3 pages that describes the area where they would take this vacation. This information would be the type of information you might get from the visitor or information center for that area or from an encyclopedia. After this section the student would include a day-to-day description of what they would do on this vacation. In particular they would describe the tourist types of things they would want to see and do. After this section they would include a budget section. The budget section would be first completed in a spreadsheet program and then copied and pasted into the word processor. The budget should include the cost of getting to the location which could be by air, land, or sea; the cost of a hotel, tourist fees, food, entertainment, rental car, etc. All of the budget information that relates to money should be formatted as money. There should be a page of websites that others could go and see that would tell them about the location.

You may want to include special information about the area that could be about seasonal differences, special events, discount packages etc. If you are considering a vacation with a large group there may be significant group discounts available. You might want to consider what you will need to ring along with you on this vacation. The types of clothing that you will need to bring, cameras, special equipment, medications, etc. You could even include the preparations at home that could be important such as the care of pets and how to handle mail. There are a lot of things to consider when taking a vacation even a short vacation. If your vacation is only one or two hours drive from your home you could probably get back home for any emergency but if you are on a cruse it would be quite difficult. Some people will find it important to still check their email and phone messages and this may not be possible from your vacation destination.

This project makes a good application project because it makes use of the word processor, spreadsheet and internet searching capability of the computer and the final product shows how well the student can use all these computer functions to produce a final product. In the classes that I would teach this was often a project that would take the place of any application exam at the end of the term but it would not replace the written exam. Some students would actually take the vacation and one student use the information for her honeymoon.