Celebrate New Jersey

  Social Studies                                Grade Level:  4

Lesson Summary:

Students will take on the role of marketers hired to promote one county in New Jersey.  Each team will research their county and create a PowerPoint presentation that will entice people to want to move to or visit that county.

Objectives:

·        To introduce students to the business of marketing and promotion

·        To guide students in the process of creating effective presentations

·        To increase awareness of the diversity in New Jersey

·        To build persuasive writing skills

Materials:

Research materials such as Encarta, letters to county representatives, etc.

Index card

Microsoft PowerPoint

Procedures:

1.      Teacher:  Have a general discussion with students about the business of marketing and promotion.  Explain the importance of knowing who your “target market” or audience is in order to create effective marketing and promotional materials that appeal to that group.  The students have been hired as marketers to convince a specific target market to move or visit their county of New Jersey. 

2.    Teacher:  Divide the class into teams of four and assign each team a county from a different region of New Jersey.  Each team must keep in mind the market they are targeting as they research their county and prepare a comprehensive and persuasive presentation about that county.  Tell students:

“Your group will work together as marketers hired to promote one county in New Jersey.  The objective is to prepare a slide presentation designed to entice a specific target market to want to move to, or visit, your county.”

3.    Students:  Begin research by gathering as many facts and as much information about the county you’ve been assigned to promote as possible.  Each team member will be responsible for researching one category from the suggested research topics including:  job opportunities, cost of living, weather, recreation, etc. 

4.    Students:  Organize your information according to the categories you researched.  Use index cards to organize your ideas.  (for example, use one index card for Recreation, and list the available resources for recreation in your county.)

5.    Each team member should create at least 5 slides and be prepared to present those slides to the class in about 5 minutes.  The entire presentation should take no more than 25 minutes.  Each team member will be preparing their own slides and presenting their own slides as part of their group’s presentation.

6.    Practice good presentation skills such as using a slow, clear voice and avoiding distracting gestures.

Additional Activities

·        Have the class choose the county they would most like to visit based on the information presented.

·        Create a travel brochure based on their county.

·        Locate the county on the map and trace a line along the roads that go to that county.  Choose a major recreation spot in the county and plan the route there.

·        Use Microsoft Excel to create graphs to illustrate specific data.  For example, use a line graph to show population growth or decline during the last 25 years.