You will need:

Google Earth and the Plug in installed on student computers

• If you are using 'Make Way for Ducklings' then you will need the locations of the places where the ducks landed (there are 10 locations)

• If you are using a different book, (see Google Lit Trips), then you will follow those locations. 

• Some prior knowledge of Google Earth

Google Maps and Google Earth gives students another authentic tool to develop some global skills. Using our duck book, Make Way for Ducklings, students can create trips and tours around Boston and share with anyone. Students will be able to save their work as a KML file. These are formats used to save your tour. KML stands for “Keyhole Markup Language” and contain geographical information. KMZ is the compressed version of KML, which is needed if you have students who want to narrate their tour. The KMZ combines the maps with the narration into one file.

This activity should be done together so everyone understands how to navigate the paths, pins, locations….once they can do this, they will be ready to move on to Google Tours.

Task #1- Warm Up 

Using the ten (10) locations from the book (duck landings) and Google Earth, students will type in the locations of the duck’s Boston adventure (in order of  occurrence) and ‘pin’ each location. This is a good opportunity to have the students practice finding relative and absolute locations using Google Earth.  

• Once pins are added for each location, students will then add a path to track the ducks’ trek.  

• By using the Google Earth Time Line, students will see how Boston has changed over the years. Have them do some research on what has changed, for example, politics, sports, infrastructure, and more. 

Google Tours

How is Tour Builder different from the existing "KML Tour" feature in Google Earth?

Tour Builder makes it easy to add photos and videos to a sequence of locations on Earth, and then share links to these tours with your friends. There is a bit more narration that is available and the tour reads like a story, which is perfect for Language Arts! Students can add photos and videos as well as a narrative. You can link the tour to a slide show or Google Site.