After researching about Google Earth, there are many ways in which it can be effectively used in the classroom. Google Earth is a tool that can help your students of any grade level understand topics such as the progress of human civilization, the growth of cities, the impact of civilization on the environment, and the impact of natural disasters. Using Google Earth can help your students understand geography other than just on a 2D map or 3D globe, but you could use Google Earth layers to study transportation, demographics, and in specific local texts.
This week, I want to specifically look at how Google Earth can be used in an elementary setting. I am going to use Google Earth to have students explore Chicago and how it has drastically changed even from 1999. In this type of lesson, we would be focusing on urbanization and what happens when cities become more populous. This would be a really great activity for students to explore on their own by using Google Earth. I can see this being a very useful for a third or fourth grade classroom.
I think this could be a very interesting tool to be used in the classroom. However, I felt like it was hard to navigate. It was hard to find something that I think third or fourth graders could understand. This was one simple way I felt like they could use this technology on their own.
A site that I used to get some information from:
http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/classroom-resources
This is interesting. I tried to look into Google Maps and really struggled to come up with anything useful... this looks a lot more involved though, and a lot more useful for the classroom. I'd be interested in hearing more about how your lesson with the students goes!
ReplyDeleteI agree with cidney. How did the lesson go? Were the kids receptive? I always used google maps for directions and to explore what certain areas look like but this idea of yours is great! Good to keep for future ideas and lesson plans!
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