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September 11, 2007
Back to School - Educational Uses with Google Earth
It is close to the end of summer in the northern hemisphere. Many kids are heading back to school after a summer break. For those of you who are educators and have thought, or heard, that Google Earth would make a good tool for geography lessons - let me suggest you look closer. Google Earth (GE) is not only a great tool for geography - it has the ability to entice kids to learn about information tied to location in a huge variety of important educational subjects. When you first load GE you have a wealth of information available at your fingertips. Thousands of aerial and satellite photos, dozens of layers of information: city names, country borders, airport locations, photos, road maps, National Geographic content, volcanoes, and more. Since Google Earth is an intuitive and fun tool, I believe you could use it as a visualization and educational tool for almost any subject. Once students prepare their own content, GE can be used to present their work - or even share their work with the world.
Below you will find a sample of possible useful content for Google Earth in a variety of subjects such as geography, literature, science, history, and more. Basically, any information which can be tied to a location on Earth can be illustrated, and made interesting, using GE. Juicy Geography is a web site, by Noel Jenkins in the UK, designed to help teachers learn more about tools like GE for the classroom and suggests possible lessons. Also, check out a summary of educational uses for Google Maps by GoogleMapsMania. And, Google has their own site on educational uses for Google Earth. Continue reading the rest of this post for more information.
Google Earth is a powerful visual tool for visualizing and presenting information tied to location. And now, with Google Earth 4.2 there are even more reasons to use GE in education (GE 4.2 adds the new Sky mode which is wonderful for astronomy lessons, the flight simulator mode for teaching about aviation, and a wealth of new features in KML 2.2 which will greatly enhance educational presentations with GE). GE can also be used as a tool for students to study or even prepare their own presentations. If I were an educator I would use GE for many topics. You can use the "Search" or "Categories" on Google Earth Blog to find more information. Or, you can go to the Google Earth Community to look for materials as well. Here are just a sample of some of the material available organized by subject:
Literature
- Places quoted in Shakespeare
- Travels of Odysseus
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Science
- Astronomy: GE 4.2 Sky Mode, Solar System in Google Earth, Solar Eclipses,
- Earth Science: Ice Flows, global temperatures
- Geology: volcanoes, earthquakes
- Biology: Avian Flu, Chimpanzees, Ants
- Environment: Glacier melt, International Polar Year, satellite data
- Weather: Weather tools, lightning data from NASA, more weather stories
History
- Lewis and Clark Expidition
- Shackleton Expedition
- Six Wives of Henry VIII
- 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Geography
Try turning on the Geographic Web layer. How about basic geography information about countries of the world? Turn on the Borders layer. Or, try the CIA World Factbook for GE 
(more details).
Posted by FrankTaylor at September 11, 2007 08:05 AM
Comments
Posted by: Yong Hwee at October 10, 2007 10:57 PM
If I have my own website, how can I provide a link to a Google Tour on it?
Posted by: Raymond Rodrigues at October 30, 2007 11:17 AM
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It amazes me how useful Google Earth is, and can be.