Exploring Google Earth & Maps for Classroom Projects
Session 2 — 11:00 am-11:45 am
Room 162A
Google Earth & Maps can be a great cross-curricular tool for
exposing your students to the real world. Learn new strategies
for these two Google apps for enhancing classroom projects and
lessons. You’ll discover ways that will allow your students to
create customized maps of places they’ve been or
where they want to go. We’ll explore the wealth of
Google Earth tours available online and learn how to create your own
tours using places in their readings or in their textbooks. Projects that
involve math skills that will be featured will make math come alive for
your students.
What’s the difference between Google Maps and Google Earth?
Google Maps —
http://www.google.com/educators/p_maps.html
Google Maps is an online application, so there's no downloading required, and you
can access it from any computer that's connected to the Internet. It is a service for
navigating global maps information. It enables you and your students to look up and
study addresses anywhere in the U.S. and in many other countries and get point-topoint, draggable directions plotted on an interactive street map.
Google Earth —
http://www.google.com/earth
http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/
 Fly to any place around the world
 See 3D buildings, imagery, and terrain
 Find cities, places, and local businesses
 Must be downloaded or installed (Android & iOS app is free, although it’s not
as full featured as the desktop application)
 Downloads for PC, Mac, or Linux
 Available for the desktop in three different versions: Google Earth (free),
Google Earth Pro (for fee, free for Google Apps for Education schools), and
Google Earth Enterprise (for fee, primarily used for business & industry)
Lesson/Activity
Title
Tool
Grades
URL or Description
Language Arts & Social
Studies
Art History
Google Lit Trips!
Earth
K-16
http://www.googlelittrips.com
User-created Maps
Search
(See sample for
Louvre at URL)
Maps
6-12
Science – Earth Science
Creating a Google
Maps Mashup
(See sample)
Maps
6-12
http://support.google.com/maps/bin/answer.p
y?hl=en&answer=62843 Sample:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geo
code=&q=louvre&ie=UTF8&z=16&msa=0&msid
=107463425232929977209.00043969a3d53625
fd362
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?
p=679546
Sample:
http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/
Tool
Grades
Curricular Area
Curricular Area
Lesson/Activity
Title
Judith M. Tucker, NWOET
800.966.9638
URL or Description
tucker@nwoet.org
Language Arts & Social
Studies
Book Maps
Earth or
Maps
3-12
Social Studies
State Research
Project
Earth or
Maps
3-12
Family & Consumer
Science
Fine Dining Explored
Earth or
Maps
6-12
Math
Road Trip - How far
and how long?
Maps
3-12
Create a map of a book that you are reading in
class. For example, in the book My Brother
Sam is Dead, the teacher or students could tag
the different battles and towns in the book
during the Revolutionary War.
Students tag areas of interest for their state.
Sample:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl
=en&msa=0&msid=110957554259336141101.0
0044a63a6a8a12b63648&t=h&z=3
Create dining spots in one locale, adding
placemarks, links, and interesting information.
Mark 10 destinations with placemarks
(teacher). Ask students to calculate distance in
miles and kilometers between ‘home’ and each
destination. Add up the miles/time and see
who can come up with the lowest mileage and
time. Extension: students will calculate cost of
gasoline in a variety of cars. Who can get the
lowest cost for their road trip?
Great Links:
Edina Public Schools Tech Camp: Google Maps Projects
https://sites.google.com/a/apps.edina.k12.mn.us/edina-tech-campapps/Home/google-maps-projects
Create Customized Google Maps For Great Classroom Projects
Carol LaRow’s ISTE 2011 Presentation – see this presentation for step-bystep directions to customizing maps & placemarks!
https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AfBNmWFHYgqEZDI0YzlrOV82
MzRjNHo4dDlnMg&hl=en_US
Using Google My Maps for Classroom Projects
http://tesl-ej.org/ej48/m1.html
Kinderchat Play Project: Google Earth Projects
http://kinderchatplay.wikispaces.com/Google+Earth+Projects
My Wikispaces’ Google Earth/Maps Classroom Projects Site
http://jayemtucker.wikispaces.com/Exploring+Google+Earth+%26+Maps+f
or+Classroom+Projects
My Agenda
Judith M. Tucker, NWOET
800.966.9638
tucker@nwoet.org
Introduce myself
How to access hand-out on my public Dropbox (or use
Google Docs sharing)
Differences between Google Earth & Google Maps
Show some links and examples of projects
What we’ll be doing today – using Google Maps only
Making a map of your home town
Adding location placemarks – two views – maps &
satellite
Customizing placemarks and descriptions
Editing & saving
Adding text
Adding images, links, & videos
Moving placemarks
Inviting collaborators
Adding paths
Linking & sharing
View in Google Earth
Importing a KMZ (Google Earth) file
Questions?
Judith M. Tucker, NWOET
800.966.9638
tucker@nwoet.org