Suddenly I remembered one of my favorite mantras: "The brain doesn't remember facts. The brain remembers connections." Bouncing ideas back and forth, Mr. H and I struck upon the idea of taking a road trip across the US. Students would learn about at least 10 states as they travel from one coast to the other.
Starting at an assigned point A, the Magical Minds research one state at a time. Using the guidesheet below, the kids use the web and atlases to discover nine facts about each state. The challenge is to then incorporate that information into a journal entry.