Describes a math project for grade 8 students.

1. The Amazing Race
Season 2
OJHS - Math 8

2. Challenge
Design an itinerary that will take you on a round trip
from Calgary (YYC) and back, with stops in the
following cities.
• Johannesburg, South Africa (JNB)
• Sao Paulo, Brazil (GRU)
• Paris, France (CDG)
• Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNX)
• Bangalore, India (BLR)
• Perth, Australia (PER)
(Three letter codes are unique to each airport.)

3. Challenge
• Teams are given $25,000 CAD with
which to purchase airline tickets.
• The winning team will return to Calgary
in the shortest amount of time. In the case
of a tie, the winner will be the team with
the greatest amount of money left over.
• Teams will depart from Calgary Airport
(YYC) on January 7, 2008

4. Task 1 - Organization
• In the H: (Home) directory of one group
member, create a folder called “Amazing
Race – Name 1, Name 2”
• You will store all of your files for this
project in this folder.
• Give all students in your group permissions
to access this folder. Ask Mr. Jantzen for
instructions.

5. Task 2 – Create Your Blog
• Create a personal blog page and customize
it. This will be where you record your
travels and post documents communicating
your results. Remember to ONLY use your
FIRST name on your blog page. To create
your blog, go to http://learnerblogs.org and
click on the K-12 School Students “Start
Here” link.

6. Task 3 – The Route
• Research the locations of the different cities
and decide on the shortest route from
Calgary, through all of the cities and back
to Calgary. On your blog, create an entry
which explains your route and the total
distance you will travel. You must include
the following details in a chart:
• the distances for each leg of the race
• a running total of the distance travelled

7. Task 4 - Tickets
• Use travelocity.ca, expedia.ca or another
travel site on the Internet to find tickets for
each leg of your route. Shop for good deals.
Remember, the times on your tickets must
actually work. You cannot leave a city
before you arrive. For each ticket, create a
.jpg screenshot and save it in your home
directory. To do this, press the “PrtSc”
button, open Irfanview and paste. Then
“Save As” to your folder on your H: drive.

8. Task 5 - Money
• You will purchase your tickets for each leg of the
race as you go. You will be paying for your tickets
using local currency. Create a spreadsheet with MS
Excel. In your spreadsheet you must include the
following information for each ticket.
• Departure location
• Arrival location
• Cost of ticket in CAD
• Name of local currency and abbreviation
• Cost of ticket in local currency
• Running total of how much money (CAD) you have
remaining
• When you finish, create a new blog entry and post
your spreadsheet.

9. Task 6 - City and Time Zone
Information
• For each city that you visit you need to create a new
blog entry. In each blog entry you need to include
the following:
• Name of the city and the country
• Three interesting facts about the city
• A picture of the city
• The .jpg picture of your ticket from Task 4
• Local date and time of arrival
• Local date and time of departure
• Arrival date and time converted to Calgary time
• Departure date and time converted to Calgary time

10. Task 7 – Finale
Create a final blog entry with a summary
stating the exact date and time when you
arrive back in Calgary and the amount of
money that you have remaining.
• Send an email to jantzens@fsd38.ab.ca with
the URL for your blog.

11. Resources
• http://learnerblogs.org
• www.world-airport-codes.com
• www.expedia.ca
• www.timezoneconverter.com