Google Earth

Google Earth,Seth Sorensen,rantings,prophead,teacher,david warlick,david pogue,technology,education

Google Earth in the Classroom

One of the most incredible online tools I have found for classroom integration is Google Earth. This tool is absolutely free and can be downloaded at the provided link. http://earth.google.com/ This tool has huge potential in teaching subjects such as social studies at most grade levels and can be tied to math and many research projects.

General map work

Zoom in and out centered on a particular locality. Observe the relationship with other places, seas, borders and features.

Fly from one locality to another. What seas are crossed? How far is it? Which direction was the flight in?
Look at famous sights round the world. How would we travel to them? What country are they in?

Measure distances between places.

Overlay the latitude and longitude grid. Use to practice grid references.

Use the rotate feature to look at the Earth with North in different positions. Use the ‘view’ menu to remove the compass. Guess when north is at the top of the page.

Construct a quiz to be answered using Google Earth –

How many borders do various countries have?

What are the capitals of various countries?

Which countries have no coast?

Where are the continents and which countries are part of them?

Rivers

Follow the course of a river (local, linked with a locality study or famous) beginning in one location and tracing it both ways. Zoom in and out along periodically.

What settlements are observed?

What crossings are they? Are they road, railway, footpath or canal?

Are any tributaries observed?

Does the river diverge at any point?

Does the river meander?
Is there evidence of a floodplain?

Locality studies

Measure the distance from the school’s locality.

Investigate geographical features nearby.

Observe transport links.

What are the main towns and cities?

Mountains

Locate mountain ranges and peaks.

Tilt the view to see the mountains in 3D.

Rotate the tilted image to see the mountain in context.

Move the cursor around and compare the elevation measurements.

Coasts

The detail needed for much of the work on
coasts is not contained in these images. However there may be some aspects
which can be useful.

Look at contrasting localities, built up areas, sand dunes, cliffs, rocky coasts, etc. .

Put known coastal features into context by zooming in and out form them.

Ancient World Studies

Have students explore3D renderings of historical sites and structures.

Provide students with overlays of historical maps and photographs.

Locate Wikipedia and Google information on historical sites.

Provide students with explorer’s routs and travel information so they can retrace the journeys.