I teach Spanish and one of the topics that is hard for my students to enjoy is the geography of the Spanish speaking world. They hate memorizing the capitals or drawing in blank maps.
With this activity I did my students had a lot of fun and it only took two days in the computer lab. Students had to chose a Spanish speaking country, do research for 3 cities they wanted to visit, 3 things to do, a hotel and two restaurants. Once they had done their research in google docs. they saved it to a map using google maps. They have to put those place marks of their research in the map.
They loved the project and I was impressed of how fast they learned the technology part. They were very excited doing their research using trip advisor, google, etc. Of course they were picking the most fancy and luxurious hotels and places. Most of them put pictures on the place marks too. They thought this was the coolest thing to put in their project.
I really think that this activity had a positive impact on the classroom environment. They worked with a partner and they got to work with new people. It also brought to them a curiosity about traveling and discovering new cultures. They were using their basic Spanish knowledge to try to translate menus, things to do, etc.
I plan on using this activity again. I did something similar like this but they had to put the information on a poster. It took too long to complete the posters, to print pictures, to cut the photos, to do research. This new generation of technology students enjoyed more this activity with google maps. Most of them have iphones, so they really know how to use google maps.
I recommend this activity to teacher who teach geography or social studies. The students do really get involved. The grades on my geography test have improved too.
I love that you've seen an improvement on your assessments as well and that you're inspired to do this again!