Now, let me tell you about a resent visit I had in a 3rd grade classroom. The class was going to study Mexico so the teacher asked me to come do a Google Earth tour of Mexico before they began their research. Wow....fun, fun lesson for me and for the students. But, best of all were the connections the students made.
I first showed them the distant view of the entire earth, or one hemisphere. We talked about the temperature at the upper most north point on Earth and furthest south. Then we discussed where it was warmest (equator). We found the United States, Missouri and then Mexico. The students decided it must be pretty hot in Mexico.
Then I took the students on a tour I made and saved. In my tour we went into some 360 Cities bubbles. (see the Google Earth video tutorial) We were on a street in an old town in Mexico and talked about what looked the same as our town and what looked different.
We looked at desert areas and mountains. The students talked about there not being any trees in the dessert and even in the mountains the trees were sparse and looked different. They loved the colors of the houses. When I asked them how the houses were different and they said they didn't seem to be made of wood. I asked them why they thought their houses were not made of wood and here are 2 answers I got:
- It looks like the houses are made of rock and maybe that is to keep it cool because it is hot in Mexico.
- They may be made of rock because they don't have very many trees like we do to make houses out of.
In Google Earth you can also see satellites in the sky and shipwrecks in the ocean. You can overlay a historical map over the Earth.
Class Uses:
- Research Countries and Cultures
- Visit historical sites
- Visit the setting(s) of a book
- Measure distances between locations
Resources
- Google Earth video tutorial on how to create a save a tour
- Google Earth for Educators
- Tutorials from Google
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