Google Earth

Google Earth is a free satellite-based interactive map. Users start by looking at the Earth from space and then "fly" to a location that they enter. You can explore places around the world from your computer. The newest version of Google Earth lets you tour distant cities, view 3-D buildings, and view sunsets around the world. This link takes you to a video exploring the new features of Google Earth 5.0.

The Google for Educators website offers some tips for getting started using Google Earth. They also offer many suggestions for how to integrate Google Earth into the classroom. Many of the suggestions seemed geared to middle or high school. They seem a little too technical for elementary students.

One of the most obvious applications of Google Earth in elementary school is with geography. Students can visit landmarks as well as calculate distances between locations. They will reinforce their latitude and longitude skills. I currently use Google Earth to visit the Grand Canyon. We see how far the Grand Canyon is from Maryland, travel along the Colorado River, and view the landscape. This "trip" reinforces our discussion of erosion as well as ways to explore the Grand Canyon.

This link takes you to the product tour of Google Earth. It has a few videos showing how to explore using Google Earth. Watch the exploring the oceans video here. The video shows how you can explore the ocean with Sylvia Earle and Jacques Cousteau. We study these scientists in my science class and with Google Earth, you can take your students to visit some of the places that we learn about. I plan on exploring this feature in more detail so that I can do it next year with my students. The things that you can do with Google Earth and the oceans really tie into my curriculum. I think that the students would enjoy using this and learn a lot from it.

One other new feature that I think has great potential is tracking and sharing your paths with others. All you have to do is turn in the touring feature and you can record your trip. You can add a soundtrack or narration. This would be a great way for students to explore the world. Teachers could assign different students different areas to study and they could make and narrate a tour to share with the rest of their class.

Google Earth has potential for telecollaborative projects as well. Students could tour the area where their partner classes are from. They could calculate distances from their location to their partner's location as well as view landmarks in that area. They could also use the record a tour feature to teach their partners about where they are from.

Download Google Earth here.