Making Social Studies Come
Alive with Google Earth and
Discovery Education
Shannon Wentworth
Instructional Technology Teacher
Sixth Avenue Elementary School
Aurora, Colorado
Gwynn Moore
Instructional Technology Teacher
Paris Elementary School
Aurora, Colorado
scwentworth@aps.k12.co.us
gmmoore@aps.k12.co.us
TIE Conference 2009
Installing Google Earth

Google Earth 5.0 can be downloaded for free
at http://earth.google.com/.
Getting to Know Google Earth
1. Search panel - Use this to find places and
directions and manage search results.
Google Earth EC may display additional
tabs here.
2. 3D Viewer - View the globe and its terrain in
this window.
3.Toolbar buttons - See below.
4. Navigation controls - Use these to zoom,
look and move around.
5. Layers panel - Use this to display points of
interest.
6. Places panel - Use this to locate, save,
organize and revisit placemarks.
7. Add Content - Click this to import exciting
content from the KML Gallery
8. Status bar - View coordinate, elevation,
imagery date and streaming status here.
9. Overview map - Use this for an additional
perspective of the Earth.
http://earth.google.com/userguide/v4/#newfeatures
More Tools
Five Cool, Easy Things to Do
1.
View an image of your home, school or any place on Earth - Click Fly To. Enter the
location in the input box and click the Search button. In the search results (Places panel),
double click the location. Google Earth flies you to this location.
2.
Tour the world - In the Places panel, open the Learn and Explore folder and double click
Explore.
3.
Get driving directions from one place to another and fly (follow) the route.
4.
View other cool locations and features created by other Google Earth users - In
the Layers panel, check Community Showcase. Interesting placemarks and other features
appear in the 3D viewer. Double click these points of interest to view and explore.
5.
View 3D terrain of a place - This is more fun with hilly or mountainous terrain, such as
the Grand Canyon. Go to a location. When the view shows the location, use the zoom
slider to tilt the terrain.
New Features in 5.0
Ocean - Fly and navigate under the ocean and
explore underwater terrain.You can also display
the ocean surface.
 Touring - Record, play and share custom tours
that capture your actions and movements in
Google Earth.
 Historical imagery - Explore images of the
recent and not-so-recent past.
 Mars - View imagery and terrain of the red
planet.

Using Layers



The Layers feature in Google Earth provides a variety
of data points of geographic interest that you can
select to display over your viewing area. This includes
points of interest (POIs) as well as map, road, terrain,
and even building data. The full list of layers is available
in the Layers panel.
Layers content is created by Google or its content
partners. Google publishes the content you see in the
Layers panel.
Take some time to explore the Layers panel. Some of
our favorites are the 3D Buildings (Statue of Liberty)
and Gallery – Discovery Networks (Beijing).
Creating Your Own Virtual Tour
The first step in creating a Google Earth Tour
is to figure out where you want to go.
 http://www.travelsd.com/placestogo/

Custer State Park
Corn Palace
Black Hills
Sioux Falls
Badlands
Wall Drug
Mount Rushmore
State Capital Building
Crazy Horse
Creating a Folder for your Tour
Creating a Folder will keep your tour landmarks
organized.
 Find the Places box.
 Right Click on Temporary Places.
 Select Add.
 Click on Folder.
 Give it a name.
 Click OK.
Adding a Placemark
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Search for the first landmark or location.
Click on the Add Placemark button from the top (push pin).
Move the pin to the exact location you want marked. (Rotating
and zooming the Viewer to the exact view you want students
to see.)
Type in a Name.
The Description box is where you can add narrative
information about the location, as well as pictures, web links,
and more. (We’ll do that later.)
Click OK.
A new location will be added to the folder you created in
Temporary Places.
Repeat these steps until all locations have been added.
Fine Tuning the Tour
Locations in your Tour folder can be
rearranged by simply clicking and dragging
them to the desired location.
 Now let’s give your tour some pizzazz!

Insert a Web Link (State Capital)
First, turn on the 3D Buildings checkbox from the
Layers menu.
 Right click the state capital listing in the
Temporary Locations listing.
 Select Properties.
 Type in a fact about the state capital if you wish.
 Provide a link to the state song.
http://www.50states.com/midi/0sd.mid (You can
type in the link yourself, or copy and paste it from
the website.)

Formatting Text (Custer State Park)
Now navigate to Custer State Park.
 Formatting text requires some basic html
command codes.





Inserting line breaks <br>
Bold text <b> before the text, </b> after the text
Italics <i> before the text, </i> after the text
Center <center> before the text, </center> after the
text
Text color can be changed with the Style, Color
tab.
 Click OK.

Inserting Images (Mt Rushmore)
You can insert an image into a Google Earth
bubble as long as it has been posted to a
website. There are many free image hosting
sites.
 You can also use royalty free images.
 http://images2.pics4learning.com/catalog/m/mt.
rushmore3.jpg
 Right click on the photo and go to Properties.

Inserting Images (part 2)
Right click on the photo and go to Properties.
 Copy the Address from the
Properties box.
 Type the following code into the
Google Earth properties box
<img src=“***’>.
 Paste the address into the
Properties box in Google Earth replacing ***.

Discovery Ed Images (Badlands)
Discovery Education (United) Streaming is a great
place to locate images.
 Go to
http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?gu
idAssetId=28D37C7B-89B3-4D40-AC82DDD0EFDE0A9F&blnFromSearch=1&productcod
e=US
 Right click on the image and select Properties.
 Copy the file address from the properties box.
(Note: If the address/name is too long, you will
also have to copy the name at the top.)

Discovery Ed Images part 2
Type the following code into the Google Earth
properties box <img src=“***’>.
 Replace the astericks *** with the address for the
image you wish to use.
 Note – if the address is too long, it may not
contain the whole file name. If that is the case,
simply click back to Discovery Education
Streaming and copy the rest of the file name from
the top of the property box.
 Don’t forget to copy and paste the citation from
DE Streaming into your Google Earth bubble.

Local Image (Sioux Falls)
First, go to Tools and Options in the Menu Bar.
 Place a Check in “Allow placemark balloons to
access local files and personal data.”
 Locate the file you wish to use and record its
exact location.
 Type <img src=“***”> in the placemark
balloon, replacing the astericks *** with the
file location.

Discovery Ed Video (Black Hills)
You can also insert DE Streaming videos.
 http://player.discoveryeducation.com/index.cfm?gu
idAssetId=FA223427-62E0-43BB-8B9AD200FED0DC85&blnFromSearch=1&productcod
e=US#
 There are two ways to do this.
 Option 1



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Find an appropriate video in DE Streaming.
Right click on the Play button.
Click Copy Shortcut.
Paste the shortcut in the placemark bubble.
Discovery Ed Video (part 2)

Option 2 (This only works if the video and the kmz file are on the same drive.)


Download the video to your harddrive. (Flash video works
best.)
Copy and paste the following code into the placemark
bubble.
<object width="425" height="344">
<param name="movie" value="file://***">
</param>
<param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> </param>
<embed src="file://***" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344">
</embed> </object>

Replace the astericks with the full file location.
Web Videos (Crazy Horse)
YouTube, TeacherTube, and other online video
hosting sites can also be resources.
 Locate the video you wish to use. (We’ll use
one from YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P004DiSwP
Yo. )
 Find the “embed” code on the page. Simply
copy and paste it into the Google Earth
properties box.

Webcams (Corn Palace)
Video can also come from live Webcams.
 These are inserted the same way still images are.
 Type in the following code…
<img src=“***”>
Replace the astericks (***) with the link to the
Webcam.
 Note – some Webcams (Corn Palace) are actually
still shots that refresh every 30 seconds or so,
while others (Sioux Falls) are constant video.

Image Overlays (Wall Drug)
Right click on the location from the side panel.
 Click Add then Image Overlay. This will open a
new window.
 Give the overlay a name and then navigate to the
web based image you wish to use.
http://www.walldrug.com/images/wdmap_newwe
b.jpg
 Adjust the transparency.
 You may also add a description.
 Click the OK button. (The overlay will show as a
separate item in the side panel.)

Saving Your Tour
Select your Tour Folder.
 Click File – Save As – Save Place As.
 Save your file as a .kmz file.
 It is now ready to be emailed, posted on the
Internet, or saved to a shared network drive
for others to access.

Playing Your Tour
Select the Tour Folder.
 Click the Play Tour button from the Sidebar.
 The Control Bar will appear at the bottom left
corner.

More Options

You can tweak your
tour further by going to
Tools – Options and
then clicking the Touring
tab.
Other Lesson Ideas

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Google Lit Trips
http://www.googlelittrip
s.com
Plot your vacation
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Family Tree
Locations from fiction
or nonfiction books.
State history timeline