LEARN NC

CareerStart lessons: Grade eight

3.9 Travel agents: Working with linear functions

By Valerie Davis, Sonya Rexrode, and Monika Vasili

Provided by CareerStart

Essential question: How can understanding linear functions help you determine which rental car company offers the best deal?

Lesson overview

Students will create equations based on real-life scenarios, graph those equations, and analyze the graphs.

Teacher planning

Materials needed

Time required

One class period

Scenario

You are a travel agent working with a family who is planning a trip to Orlando, Florida. They will fly to Orlando and then rent a car for the five days they will be in town. They are planning to visit several tourist attractions during their stay in Florida. Your job is to help this family decide which rental car agency they should use. You have the daily car rental fee as well as the cost per mileage for each company. Using this information, you will help them decide which company is more affordable.

Activities

  1. Read students the scenario and share with them information about travel agents. (See “Career Information” below.)
  2. Hand out the rental car worksheet and have students work through it. The worksheet draws on the scenario above and offers a choice between two rental car companies: One that charges a higher daily fee and a lower per-mile charge, and one that offers a lower daily fee and a higher per-mile charge. Students are instructed to graph the costs of each company as a linear function and answer analysis questions.

Career information

Career information comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Nature of the work

  • Travel benefits, such as reduced rates for transportation and lodging, attract people to this occupation.
  • Training at a post-secondary vocational school, college, or university is increasingly important.
  • Travel agents increasingly specialize in specific destinations or by type of travel or traveler.

Travel agents are knowledgeable about the many aspects of trip planning for individuals and groups. They can help their clients sort through masses of information about destinations, travel arrangements, including rates and connections, accommodations, currency, regulations concerning papers needed by the tourist, and other details that a traveler might overlook. Agents spend a great deal of time gathering information on-line and from published information. A typical workday will be spent working in an office, working on a computer, on the phone and meeting with clients.

Training, qualifications

To succeed in this vocation, an individual must have a love of travel, sales experience, excellent writing and communication skills, and knowledge of geography. They must be detail oriented, organized, and accurate. They must have be comfortable working with computers, and know how to run a business profitably.

The minimum educational requirement for positions in travel is a high school diploma. A lot of the actual training is gained on the job. There are vocational schools and community colleges that offer certification programs for people desiring employment in the travel field.

Earnings

The median annual salary of a travel agent was $29,210 in 2006. This salary is dependent on the experience, sales ability, and the size and location of the agency and the individual.

Job outlook

The need for travel agents is not expected to change in the period until 2016. Jobs in this field are very sensitive to economic downturns.

Additional information

For further information on training opportunities, see:

North Carolina curriculum alignment

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 8

  • Goal 5: Algebra - The learner will understand and use linear relations and functions.
    • Objective 5.01: Develop an understanding of function.
      • Translate among verbal, tabular, graphic, and algebraic representations of functions.
      • Identify relations and functions as linear or nonlinear.
      • Find, identify, and interpret the slope (rate of change) and intercepts of a linear relation.
      • Interpret and compare properties of linear functions from tables, graphs, or equations.