Google Earth in Education

Google Earth in EducationExploring the Planet in your Classroom

Presentation prepared by Donna Spear, Milton High School Classrooms for the Future Coach, July 2008

What is Google Earth?

satellite imagery-based mapping product

puts the whole world on a student's computer

enables users to "fly" from space to street level

finds geographic information

explores places around the world like a video game and a search engine rolled into one

a 3D model of the entire planet

lets you grab, spin and zoom to any place on Earth

How Can I Use it in my Classroom?

from literature to environmental science

Google Earth brings the world alive for your students get your students excited about geography

study economics, demographics, transportation

use real-time coordinates to demonstrate distance calculations bring classic or contemporary tales to life

explore topics like the progress of human civilization

or the impact of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina

Click for Interactive Menu

Ready to Get Started?Click on the following interactive buttons to learn more

Use this “home” button to return back to this interactive menu at any time

Download Google Earth

Learn the Interface

Learn the Navigation Controls

Watch a Google

Earth Video

Classroom Ideas

Add a Placemark

About Layers

Web Resources

Last Words

Download Google Earth

Return to Interactive Menu

Download and install the latest version of Google Earth from http://earth.google.com/download-earth.htmlHere’s what your screen will look like:

Unselect these two checkboxes unless you want

these options

Click Agree and

Download

After the download and installation process, you will see the Google Earth icon on your desktop. Use this to access the program.

http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html

Learn the Interface


Search PanelUse this to find places

and directions

Places PanelUse this to

locate, organize, and

revisit placemarks

Layers PanelUse this to

display points of interest

Navigation Controls

Use these to zoom, look, and

move around the globe

Placemark icon

Use this to add a

placemark for a location

Here’s what your screen will look like when you launch Google Earth:

Learn the Navigation Controls


Here’s what the navigation controls look like:

1. Click the north up button to reset the view so that north is at the top of the screen. Click and drag the ring to rotate your view.

2. Use the Look joystick to look around from a single vantage point, as if you were turning your head. Click an arrow to look in that direction or continue to press down on the mouse button to change your view. After clicking an arrow, move the mouse around on the joystick to change the direction of the motion.

3. Use the Move joystick to move your position from one place to another. Click an arrow to look in that direction or continue to press down on the mouse button to change your view. After clicking an arrow, move the mouse around on the joystick to change the direction of motion.

4. Use the zoom slider to zoom in or click the icons at the end of the slider. As you move closer to the ground, Google Earth swoops (tilts) to change your viewing angle to be parallel to the Earth's surface.

Add a Placemark


Here’s how you can save places using the placemark icon in Google Earth.You can use placemarks to mark any location on the planet. Once you have created a placemark, it appears in the My Places folder in the Places panel. You can then quickly go to the marked location at any time by double clicking the placemark in the Places panel. Additionally, you can edit, move, share or delete any placemark. Watch this two-minute video describing this feature.

About Layers


Here’s information about using layers in Google Earth.The Layers feature in Google Earth provides a variety of data points of geographic interest that you can select to display over your viewing area. This includes points of interest (POIs) as well as map, road, terrain, and even building data. The full list of layers is available in the Layers panel.

Here’s a view of the USA showing the weather layer at

4:30 p.m. on 7/8/08

Watch a Google Earth Video


This one-minute video shows the coolest features of the latest version of Google Earth

Classroom Ideas


Biology: Track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. See the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee blog here.

Ecology: Create a short quiz like this one.

Environmental Science: Have students check Alaska's global warming problems. See how the Sierra Club used Google Earth to depict this problem here.

Geology: Find images, links, and descriptions, with information about thousands of volcanoes around the globe, thanks to organizations like the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.

Global Awareness: Study the Crisis in Darfur with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's unprecedented project.

History: Explore Tutankhamun's Tomb.

Humanities: Have your students scout film shoot locations like this teacher did with The Golden Compass.

Literature: Bring class or contemporary tales to life with Google LitTrips.

Math: Explore distance, velocity, and wave properties of tsunamis.

Here are some links to ideas for using Google Earth in your classroom. These are already created and saved lessons. FYI: the file extension for saved Google Earth content is .kmz.

http://www.janegoodall.org/gombe-chimp-blog/



http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/02/putting-google-earth-to-test.html

http://www.sierraclubplus.org/arctic/maps/

http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/globallists.cfm?listpage=googleearth

http://earth.google.com/outreach/kml_entry.html



http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/northernlights

http://www.googlelittrips.org/

http://www.googlelittrips.org/

http://www.realworldmath.org/iWeb/Real%20World%20Math/2004%20Indian%20Ocean%20Tsunami%20Activity.html

Web Resources


Information for this presentation was taken from the following sites. Visit these sites for even more!

Here’s a few more sites dealing with Google Earth and classroom applications.

Google EarthGoogle Earth User GuideGoogle Earth for Educators

10 Cool and Easy Things You Can Do in Google Earth fun stuff to tryGoogle Earth Hacks provides links to interesting content and gives quick access to check things out in Google EarthGoogle Earth Blog dedicated to sharing the best news, interesting sights, technology, and happenings for Google Earth7 things you should know about Google Earth read especially the Why is it significant? and What are the implications for teaching and learning? sectionsGoogle Earth Lessons tons of great lesson ideas

Visit these sites or simply do a Google search on “Google Earth Lesson Plans” and find great stuff!

http://earth.google.com/

http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/

http://www.google.com/educators/p_earth.html

http://www.google.com/educators/start_earth.html

http://www.gearthhacks.com/

http://gearthblog.com/

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7019.pdf

http://gelessons.com/lessons/

Last Words


Some final thoughts as you begin to realize the potential of using Google Earth in your classroom.

With any technology tool in education, the first step is to learn the tool yourself.

The best way to learn, is to play and to share.

Don’t be afraid to try new and innovative ways of teaching.

It’s okay to make mistakes along the way. That’s how we learn.

Start small. Just plant the seed and grow from there.

Documents

Google Earth in Education