Google Earth in the Classroom

Google Earth in the Classroom
Created by WestEd for Google
Get the tool: http://earth.google.com
What is it?
Google Earth is a free, downloadable application that
works as a browser for all sorts of information on
Earth. It uses satellite imagery to grab, spin, pan, tilt
and zoom down to any place on Earth. Students can
explore every corner of the globe, measure distances,
create their own virtual tours, and share their tours
with others. You can also create and download layers
of information and view them in geographic context.
Why use it?
Students can use Google Earth to:
• study natural and political maps
• learn map reading and navigation
• visually explore historical, news, and census data
• annotate locations and share with others
• create their own 3D models to overlay on maps
• download geographically-referenced information
created by others
Instructional Ideas
Expert Tip
Elementary. Have students explore veri?ed locations where
meteors have hit the Earth (http://www.gearthblog.com/
To help you know what is
km?les/impacts.kmz), then create a chart of the number of
possible with Google Earth,
craters per continent.
download and explore lots of
Middle School. Have students explore the 19 annotated
virtual tours (KML and KMZ
placemarks mentioned in Jules Verne’s “Around the
?les) before creating your
World in 80 Days” (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.
php?Number=156427). Then have them annotate 19
own tours.
different places they would stop if they were traveling
around the world.
High School. Have students pretend they are with Sir
Ernest Shackelton during his adventure in Antarctica.
Explore the virtual tour in Google Earth (http://bbs.keyhole.
com/ubb/download.php?Number=151193) and have
students write diary entries to personalize the experience.
mapping, the iterative design process, and user feedback.

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Google Earth in Action
Project: San Francisco Seismic Hazards
Grade/Subject: 7th grade
URL:http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googleearthsanfran.htm
How can we minimize the worst e?ects of earthquakes by
designing safer cities? In small groups, students use a variety
of spatial data to make decisions about seismic hazards and
building locations in San Francisco. Using Google Earth,
students locate existing hospitals
and consider the requirements for
a new hospital building, such as
population density, access to roads
and transportation, etc. They then
create a new placemark for the new
hospital somewhere in San Francisco
and describe the rationale for their
location.
Additional Resources
Find and Share Virtual Tours
Complimentary Tools
Global Earth Community
Google SketchUp
http://bbs.keyhole.com/entrance.php
http://earth.google.com
United Streaming
More Examples
http://www.unitedstreaming.com/
Google Earth Blog
GE Graph
http://www.gearthblog.com/
http://www.sgrillo.net/googleearth/
Google Sightseeing
Earth Plot
http://www.googlesightseeing.com/
http://www.earthplotsoftware.com/
Juicy Geography
http://www.juicygeography.co.uk/googleearth.htm
Geographic Information Systems
Geospatial21
http://www.geospatial21.org/
The History and Application of GIS in Education
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/features/
historygisedu/

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