Google Earth and Maps
http://sitescontent.google.com/google-earth-for-educators/classroom-resources
http://www.google.com/educators/tools.html
Classroom Resources
Google Earth can help you bring a world of information alive for your students. It can be used with all grade levels, and the
possibilities are endless with your imagination!
 Classroom Resources: Features for My Class
Below is a list of some popular Google Earth Features and how they can be helpful in the classroom:
o Fly to the Sky: With Sky in Google Earth your students can explore Hubble telescope images, check out
current astronomical events, study the proportions of different planets, measure their size, and observe the
relative brightness of stars. You'll capture the wonder of the universe without leaving your classroom. Learn
More!
o View Historical Imagery: With the timeslider, view historical imagery to study the construction process of large
buildings such as sports stadiums. You can also see how communities have developed by comparing the city
layout of past and present. Learn More!
o View 3D Buildings :With 3D buildings Google Earth students have entire city landscapes at their finger tips.
They can explore specific skyscrapers, public landmarks, famous ancient architecture, and even study city
planning techniques and trends. With Google SketchUp students can recreate entire ancient cities within Earth.
Learn More!
o Draw and Measure: Discover the world's tallest building or the world’s highest mountain peak by using the ruler
tool to measure skyscrapers and mountains. You can mark off specific regions you have studied, or want to
come back to using the polygon tool. Learn More!
o Create a Tour: Students can create customized tours to share with their classmates. For example, they can
build context around a novel by creating a tour of all the places mentioned in the book. Or, they can make a tour
to highlight all the major rain-forests effected by deforestation. Learn More!
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Classroom Resources: Projects for My Subject
Below you will find ideas on popular methods to implement Google Earth in the classroom for a variety of subjects.
o Biology and Ecology:
 Track routes of chimpanzees with the Jane Godall Institute by exploring the KML from the Gombe
Chimpanzee blog.
 Replace a standard lesson with a short quiz like this one that uses Google Earth to take students on an
ecology search mission.
o Environmental and Earth Sciences:
 Explore the impact of climate change with Kofi Annan.
 Have students check Alaska's global warming problems. See how the Sierra Club used Google Earth to
depict this problem here.
 View Google Earth layers containing images, links, and descriptions, with information about thousands
of volcanoes around the globe, thanks to organizations like the Smithsonian Institution's Global
Volcanism Program.
 Lesson: “From Here to There” uses Google Earth to create placemarks detailing an earth science
project.
 Lesson: Earthquake! USGS & Google Earth uses Google Earth layers to study tectonics and earth
movement.
o Global Awareness:
 Study the Crisis in Darfur with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's unprecedented project.
o History, Social Studies, and Humanities:
 Have students explore the dining customs of a variety of countries by building an International
Cookbook where users virtually visit the various countries. While they’re ‘in-country” why not stop by
and visit a few points of cultural interest?
 Lesson: Spring Sojourn: A lesson in Civil Rights History and Geography.
 Lesson: A Place in Time with Google Tools. Explore with your students the power of images and their
impact on history as they research, select and evaluate photographs in an interactive and collaborative
lesson.
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Google Earth and Maps
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Lesson: A Candidate Watch with Google Tools. Lesson ideas for tracking the 2008 US Presidential
campaign using Google Earth, Docs & Spreadsheets, News Archives search, and Blogger.
Art History and Architecture:
 Search famous museums like the Louvre in Paris.
 Use Google Earth’s 3D building layer to discover key historical and modern architectural works such as
the Duomo in Florence, Italy or the Washington Monument, in Washington DC
English and Literature:
 Lesson: "Postcards from the Past using Google Earth Tools" by Cheryl Davis, Teacher.
 Have your students discover locations from within films, like this teacher did with The Golden Compass.
 Lesson:Google Lit Trips: Explore literature through Google Earth, flying between places mentioned in
the books.
Math:
 Use real-time coordinates to demonstrate distance calculations and verify the results using our
measurement tools.
 Calculate the volume of the Great Pyramids and estimate the land area lost to Amazon deforestation.
 Explore distance, velocity, and wave properties of tsunamis by looking at the Figi Island Tsunami within
Google Earth.
Classroom Resources: Lesson Plan Library
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The Google Earth Lesson Plan Library
 If you're looking for a lesson plan, you can easily incorporate Google Earth into your curriculum with
these classroom-ready lesson plans:
 Geography - Scavenger Hunt of Physical Features, Grade 2
History - Scavenger Hunt of Capital Cities, Grade 5
History and Math - Presidential Homes, Grade 5
History - Renaissance, Grade 7
Science - Solar System, Grade 5
Science - Animal Habitats, Grade 3
Science - Food Chains, Grade 6
Science - Plate Tectonics, Grade 6
Other Resources for Google Earth Lesson Plans
 While we build up our lesson plan library, we encourage you to visit other sites we know of such as:
 Impact of Climate Change with Kofi Annan
GE Lessons
Scholastic Explore Your Earth
Flying Through the Crusades
Google Earth Education Community
GeoTours
Teaching Physics with Google Maps
Pedagogy in Action: Teaching with Google Earth
My Fresh Plans: Google Earth and Your Community
Encylopedia of Life's Google Earth Species Quiz
 Would you like to use other Google Products in your curriculum? Check out the Google Apps Lesson
Plans.
 For more Google Apps educational resources, including video tutorials, discussion forum, community
map, and news, visit the Google Apps Education Community site.
Tutorials & Tips
 Basic Tutorials and Tips
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Whether you need to begin, build, or polish your Google Earth skills, we have the resources that you need.
If you’ve only got a moment to get started, check out Five cool, easy things you can do in Google Earth.
(For Teachers and Students) To get the basics down, we suggest Google Earth learn: It will equip you with the
basics of Google Earth through an interactive learning game.
To learn about the most popular Google Earth features take a Feature tour. To learn more about features, we
suggest the Google Earth User Guide.
If you’re a visual learner, try our Outreach tutorials or the Google Earth YouTube channel.
We have even more tutorials without video content, don't miss them!
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Google Earth and Maps
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Using Google Earth in Dynamic Curriculum
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If you haven't already checked out our suggestions for how to bring the world to your students through Google
Earth, check out Google Earth Features For My Class.
Creating Maps Using Custom Maps for Google Maps
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Creating your own maps has never been simpler. With the Custom Maps for Google Maps, you can mark locations, paths,
and regions of interest on a personalized map, and share it with the world! You can even add descriptive text, embed photos
and videos, and view your map on Google Earth.
With the My Places feature in Google Maps, there are a number of exciting things you can do for your organization. Here are
a few ideas:
 Plan an event and distribute information to participants.
 Generate a map locating your organization's branches across the country or across the globe for anyone to see.
 Map out your volunteer base and geographically plan objectives for reaching out.
This tutorial will guide you through an example of organizing
a beach cleanup day like the one shown below. We'll end up
with a map like this.
We would like our map to show the following things: the
meeting point, the path that each team will follow, the end
point, and where we'll have our picnic at the end of the
cleanup. Feel free to follow along, modifying locations and
descriptions to suit your own needs. You'll be surprised at
how fun and easy it is!
Let's get started!
1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Sign in to your Google Account if you have not already
done so using the link on top right corner.
3. Click on the Maps link under the search box.
4. Click the Create new map button.
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Google Earth and Maps
5. Add a title and description for your map. You can make
your map public or unlisted. We'll make ours public so that
it shows up in search results.
l6. Click the Save button.
7. Let's zoom into the Santa Cruz Beach area. Type "Santa
Cruz Beach, USA" in the search box and zoom in to get a
closer look. Once you've zoomed in, click the Maps link to
come back to your map.
8. Click on the Satellite button located at the top right of
your map. Under the Satellite button, keep Show labels
checked. By doing this, we'll be able to see the aerial
imagery as well as road information.
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Google Earth and Maps
Adding placemarks: Let's mark locations for group
meeting points! Now let's add data!
1. Click
at the top left of your map. Your cursor should
change into a placemark icon with an "X" crosshairs. The
crosshairs indicate where the placemark will fall.
2. Let's first mark the starting point for our beach cleanup.
Move the cursor to the appropriate location. If you want to
dismiss this placemark, press the Escape key.
3. Click your mouse button to place your placemark. It
should bounce into place.
4. Add a title and description.
5. You can also change the icon for your placemark by
clicking the icon in the top right corner of the info window.
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Google Earth and Maps
If you want to add a custom icon, such as your
organization's logo, to the map, click "Add an icon." Enter in
the complete url to your logo on the web (eg.
http://www.myorganization.org/our_logo.jpg). The ideal size
for your logo is 64 x 64 pixels. For this example, enter in
http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/images/en/new_version_lo
go_for_website_en.jpg
6. Click OK to save your placemark.
7. Add another placemark for the ending point. Here's what
your map will look like after adding these two placemarks.
Tips:
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To move any placemark on your map, drag-anddrop any placemark to the new location. Note that
you can only edit or move placemarks on your
maps, not others' maps.
To edit a placemark's title or description, click on
the placemark to open the info window. Edit the
title and description and click OK.
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Adding lines: Let's show the paths to take!
1. Click
. Your cursor appears like this:
2. First we'll show the path that the first group, Group A,
should take. Move the cursor to the appropriate location
and click to start drawing the line. If you want to dismiss
this line, press the Escape key.
3. Click your mouse button at each point of your line.
4. To finish drawing your line, double-click the last end
point.
5. Add a title and description.
6. You can also change the color, transparency, and width
of your line by clicking the color swatch in the top right
corner of the info window.
7. Click OK to save your line.
8. Add another line for the second group, Group B. Here's
what your map will look like after adding these two paths.
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Google Earth and Maps
Tips:
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To move a line on your map, mouse over the line
to make the end points appear. Click and drag the
points to move them.
To delete a point from your line, right-click on the
point and choose Delete from the context menu.
To add a point to your line, you can either click on
one of the semi-transparent points, or right-click on
the line and choose Add a point from the context
menu.
To edit a line's title or description, click on it to
open the info window. Edit the title and description
and click OK.
Adding shapes: Let's show our picnic area and
the parking lot!
1. Click
. Your cursor appears like this:
2. We can now draw a box around our picnic area. Move
the cursor to the appropriate location and click to start the
shape. If you want to dismiss this shape, press the Escape
key.
3. Click your mouse button at each end point of your
shape.
4. To finish drawing your shape, double-click the last end
point or click on the starting point to complete the shape.
5. Add a title and description.
6. You can also change the color and transparency of your
shape by clicking the color swatch in the top right corner of
the info window.
7. Click OK to save your shape.
8. Create another region to show the parking lot area.
Here's what your map will look like after adding these
regions.
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Google Earth and Maps
Tips:
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To move a shape on your map, mouse over the
shape to make the end points appear. Click and
drag the points to move them.
To delete a point from your shape, right-click on
the point and select Delete from the context menu.
To add a point to your shape, you can either click
on one of the semi-transparent points, or right-click
on the shape and choose Add a point from the
context menu.
To edit a shape's title or description, click on it to
open the info window. Edit the title and description
and click OK.
Add photos to your map
1. Still in Edit mode, create a new placemark or click on the
placemark you wish to add the photo to. You can also open
the placemark by clicking it in the list in the left-hand panel.
2. With the placemark open, click the Rich Text link.
3. Then click on the Image icon. Enter the URL to the
image's location on the web (e.g.
http://www.myorganization.org/img/beachcleanup.jpg).
Images less than 400 pixels will fit best inside the pop-up
balloon. For this example, enter the following URL:
http://www.cleanuptheworld.org/images/en/jordan_theroyal-marine-conservation-society-of-jordan--large.jpg
4. You'll see the image appear in the balloon description.
5. Click OK.
Tip:
 If you are looking for a place to host your images
online, consider using Google PicasaWeb.
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Add YouTube videos to your map
1. Upload your video to YouTube or choose a video that's
already uploaded.
2. On the YouTube video's webpage, find the Share button
and click it to see more options. Find the Embed button
and click it to see more options. Look for the checklist of
options below the html code and select the option for “Use
old embed code”. Now copy the HTML code. The code
looks similar to this:
<object width="425" height="344">
<param name="movie"
value="//www.youtube.com/v/DN1aQ5WVi78&amp;hl
=en&amp;fs=1"></param>
<param name="allowFullScreen"
value="true"></param>
<param name="allowscriptaccess"
value="always"></param>
<embed
src="//www.youtube.com/v/DN1aQ5WVi78&amp;hl=e
n&amp;fs=1"
type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"
width="425" height="344">
</embed>
</object>
3. Go back to Google Maps. Make sure your Custom Map
is open and in Edit mode. Create a new placemark or open
the placemark to which you want to add a YouTube video.
You can open the placemark by clicking on it in the map or
clicking on it in the list in the left-hand panel.
4. Click Edit HTML. Paste in the Embed Code that you
copied from YouTube.
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5. Click OK.
6. Click the Save button to save your map, and then click
the Done button to finish editing your map. Now you should
be able to view the YouTube video when you click on the
placemark to which you added the video.
And we're done! Check out our finished map!
You can return to your map at any time. Just go to Google
Maps and click the Maps button. Sign into your Google
Account and select the map from your list of maps.
Collaborate on your map
1. Go to Google Maps and sign in with your Google
Account. If you don't have a Google Account, sign up here.
2. Create a new map or open a map you've created earlier.
Choose the map that you want to allow others to
collaborate on.
3. Click Collaborate in the lower left panel.
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Google Earth and Maps
4. You'll see a dialog box pop up:
Manage your collaborators and invite others to edit your
map.
 Add collaborators by entering their email
addresses (separated by commas) in the upper left
box
 Customize an optional invitation email that will be
sent to new collaborators
 If you'd like collaborators to be able to invite other
collaborators, you can check the box in the upper
right corner
 Select "Allow anyone to edit this map" if you'd like
any Google Maps user to be able to contribute to
your map
 As the map owner, you can remove collaborators
by clicking on the "Remove" link next to a
collaborator's name on the lower right side. Click
on "remove all" to stop collaborating on your map
Sharing Your Map with Volunteers
1. Click on the Link link on the upper right-hand side of the
page.
2. Find the text box under Paste link in email or IM. Let's
email this out to our volunteers.
3. Simply highlight and copy the link, and paste it in your
email text.
Your volunteers now have easy access to the map, making
for a well-planned event!
Read more about using Custom Maps for Google Maps in
the Google Maps User Guide.
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Google Earth and Maps
Geo Education - Classroom Ideas
Here are some other ideas for using Google Earth and Google Maps in your classroom:
 Art History
o Search for photos and user-created maps showing famous museums like the Louvre in Paris.
 Biology & Ecology
o Track routes of chimpanzees in Tanzania's Gombe Forest. See the Jane Goodall Institute Chimpanzee blog
here.
o Create a short quiz like this one.
 Environmental Science & Climatology
o Have students check Alaska's global warming problems. See how the Sierra Club used Google Earth to depict
this problem here.
o See how Google and the United Nations Environment Programme teamed up to use collaborative MyMaps for
the International Cleanup Weekend Initiative.
o Use this Google Maps Mashup to locate and learn about recent earthquakes around the world.
o Celebrate the 2007-2008 International Polar Year and add your classroom's plans to this global map.
 Geology
o Find images, links, and descriptions, with information about thousands of volcanoes around the globe, thanks to
organizations like the Smithsonian Institution's Global Volcanism Program.
 Global Awareness
o Study the Crisis in Darfur with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's unprecedented project.
 History:
o Explore Tutankhamun's Tomb.
o Take a virtual tour of the 21 California Missions.
 Literature & Humanities
o Bring class or contemporary tales to life with Google LitTrips.
o Have your students scout film shoot locations like this teacher did with The Golden Compass.
 Math
o Explore distance, velocity, and wave properties of tsunamis.
 Physics
o Learn how one teacher used Google Maps with his 9th grade class to teach speed, velocity and displacement.
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