More Free Stuff From Google

My colleague, Tech Paul, alerted me to this, and it addresses a question I get very often from parents: How do I (fill in the blank)? This package from Google includes (it’s a link. If you can’t read my Jing screen save, click on it):

10 Great Virtual Field Trips

Schools and kids love field trips, but they take a lot of time, money and extra adult supervision that may or may not be available. Thanks to the internet, there are now alternatives that are only as far away as your technology lab.

Here are some of the best available across the wild web of the internet:

• Smithsonian Museum

• Forest Life

• The Moon via Google Earth

• Mars via Google Earth

• Planet in Action via Google Earth

• Ellis Island

• Eternal Egypt

• A Collection of Virtual Field Trips

To:

• science museums
• farms
• Blackwell’s Best Virtual Field Trips
• strife-torn countries
• factories
• more

Want a quick tour right now, via YouTube. This is Mars, complements of Google Earth:

Only have a few minutes? Try one of these Learnz Virtual Field Trips via YouTube:

 

How to Teach Geography with Google Earth–Part II

This project uses the free downloadable software, Google Earth. It introduces latitudes and longitudes to the depth you require for your classroom, shows students how to take a tour (you can create one of your own–say, California Missions–or use the free installed world tool Google provides), and lets students use the ruler tool to find distances around the world.

Grade Level: 3-5 (or whichever grade you start latitudes and longitudes)

Background: None. This is a starter for Google Earth

Vocabulary: latitude, longitude, degrees, minutes, seconds, grids, toolbars, tour

Time: About 30 minutes

Overview: Use Google Earth as a visual way of teaching how latitudes and longitudes can be used to identify every location on our planet

Steps:

• Open Google Earth. Turn on the grid lines with view-grid.
• Discuss what the bright yellow lines and the lighter white lines are–prominent and other latitudes and longitudes
• Discuss what N, S, W, E mean in the front of each latitude and longitude; discuss how to identify a latitude and longitude by degrees, minutes, seconds.
• Go to your school or home location. Notice its specific latitude and longitude location
• Have a tour ready for the students to take. There are many to choose from on Google Earth Community, or create your own that is meaningful to students. Have them take this tour, noticing its latitudes and longitudes.
• Show students how to use Google Earth ruler to measure distances between locations. If you’re studying rounding in class, show them how to round the distance to the nearest half-mile or whichever fits your class lessons.
• Have them work with a partner to fill in the following worksheet

  Common problems:

  • Students will confuse countries with continents
  • Students can’t find the country names. Show them how to zoom in by scrolling in on the mouse.

  
  

How to Teach Geography with Google Earth–Part I

Grade Level: 3-5 (or whichever grade you start latitudes and longitudes)

Display grids on Google Earth

Background: None. This is a starter for Google Earth

Vocabulary: latitude, longitude, grids, toolbars, tour, names of prominent lats and longs

Time: About 30 minutes

Overview: Use Google Earth as a visual way of teaching how latitudes and longitudes cover the globe and cross every location on our planet

Steps:

• Open Google Earth. Turn on the grid lines with view-grid.
• Discuss what the bright yellow lines and the lighter white lines are–prominent and other latitudes and longitudes
• Discuss what N, S, W, E mean in the front of each latitude and longitude
• Go to your school or home location. Notice it’s latitude and longitude.
• Have a tour ready for the students to take. There are many to choose from on Google Earth Community, or create your own that is meaningful to students. Have them take this tour, noticing where it crosses the prominent latitudes and longitudes.
• Have them work with a partner to fill in the following worksheet (finish at least questions 1-5)
  

  Taken from the 3rd grade Structured Learning workbook

  • Common problems:
    • Students will confuse countries with continents
    • Students can’t find the country names. Show them how to zoom in by scrolling in on the mouse.

    from the Structured Learning Technology series for K-5

  
  

How to Teach Lats and Longs

GE showing lats and longs

Grade Level: 3-5

Background: None. This is an intro to Google Earth

Vocabulary: Google Earth, latitudes, longitudes, Tropic of Capricorn, Tropic of Cancer, equator, Prime Meridian, international date line, Arctic Circle, Antarctic,

Time: About 30 minutes

Steps:

• Open Google Earth (click for free download). Do a quick demo if this is their first time–toolbars at the top, guide sections on

• Turn on grid lines (view-grid). Discuss the major lats and longs (in yellow). Show how they can be traced around the globe.
• Students practice this skill by filling in all categories on this worksheet

• Students can work in pairs.

4 Ways to Explore the Universe From Your Computer

There are three great methods that you may not know about–all Free and ready-to-use in classroom inquiry into our Universe:

Celestia

This is a free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. You can travel throughout the solar system, to any of over 100,000 stars, or even beyond the galaxy to a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft. If that’s not enough, you can download dozens of easy to install add-ons with more objects.

Google Sky

Google teamed up with astronomers at some of the largest observatories in the world to bring you a new view of the sky. This tool provides an exciting way to browse and explore the universe. You can find the positions of the planets and constellations on the sky and even watching the birth of distant galaxies as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. You can view it online or as a free download with Google Earth.

Google Moon

Developed in conjunction with NASA and JAXA, you can view take tours of landing sites, narrated by Apollo astronaut,  view 3D models of landed spacecraft, zoom into 360-degree photos to see astronauts’ footprints, and watch rare TV footage of the Apollo missions. You can also access Google Moon via Google Earth with a download

Google Mars

Internet-based exploration of Mars. In collaboration with NASA researchers at Arizona State University, Google created some of the most detailed scientific maps of Mars ever made. You can view regions of Mars, spacecraft, Mars stories. You can also view Mars via Google Earth with a quick download.

Warning: Computers can be Addicting

Map from Google Earth; flag from KidPix

Here’s a great project using the popular Google Earth and KidPix. It’s geared for K-2, but older’s OK too, especially during summer. It uses Google Earth and KidPix and takes about thirty minutes:

• Open Google Earth. Give a review of the start page if necessary (three sections on the left, tool bar at the top, screen in the middle with Earth. show them how to make sure the 3D buildings tool is selected. Let them play with the ’sunlight’ tool at the top.
• Go to ‘fly to’. Type in their country of origin and push enter. Watch GE zoom in to the location.
• Show them how to use the mouse to fine tune the display. Click-drag to move the location. Scroll in and out to zoom; click-hold-drag the mouse scroll to change perspective.
• When the picture’s perfect, File-save image.
• Open KidPix. (review this post for basics).  ‘Add graphic’–pick the GE picture. Now go to the sticker tool and find the country’s flag.
• Still in KidPix, add text with ABC tool. Younger students will like using the alphabet toolbar under the ‘animation’ tool.