Tech Tip Tuesday
 
Search this site

Google Earth - Curriculum Ideas

Google Earth can be wonderful to use to introduce your students to the places in their text books. You may want to create your own lessons or use some that have been made available to compliment your lessons. Here are a few you may be interested in:

Language Arts

Whether your class is reading,  Possum Magic by Mem Fox, By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleishman, or The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Google Lit Trips can take your students to the setting of the book and make the story come more alive with the pictures and resources available in the placemarkers.

Older students will enjoy seeing the places in Shakespeare's Plays,   Jane Austen's Life and Work, or John's Steinbeck's Travels with Charley. These sites are found in the Google Earth Community along with numerous other resources.

Social Studies

Also found in the Google Earth Community is a map showing the westward explorations of Lewis and Clark.  The placemarkers take you to the lewis-clark.org website for more information.

See the California Missions Alta California and in  Baja California by exploring these sites.

Find out about the Crisis in Darfur or track the US Unemployment Rates at the Google Earth Outreach website. Look here for other Google Earth files from community and environmental action groups.

See what Ancient Rome looked like in 3-D. Walk down the streets of Rome in 320 AD and explore the insides of ancient buildings, all recreated in Google SketchUp.

 

Math

Here are some places to check out for using Google Earth in math

Science

Can you think of a better tool to teach geological map interpretation? Here is great lesson from On the Cutting Edge to help you get started.


Study the effect of Global Warming with this lesson from David R. Wetzel.

Just for Fun

  • Send a GeoGreeting . Have your message spelled out with buildings found in GoogleEarth.


There is so much available for Google Earth, and more resources being posted all the time. All it takes to implement these ideas is a free downloaded version of Google Earth 5.0 , and your lessons can take you (and your students) places.