|World Wonders in Google Earth|
|Description||Goals and Objectives||Grade Level:||3rd - 8th|
|In this lesson students will use Google Earth to search for roughly 30 landmarks from around the world. Some are new engineering wonders, others are geologic wonders and some are historic wonders. Students will create placemarks at each location and in the description include basic information along with a picture link. The picture links are from the Wikimedia Commons.||The learner will use interactive technology to gain awareness of global landmarks.
The learner will categorize landmarks spatially.
Geology - Earth Processes
|Depends on expectations.|
|Skills Addressed||File Resources Available||Related Topics & Resources|
Technology - Use of multiple research sources.
Identification of continents and countries.
Video tutorial (streaming)
Continents with names overlay-kmz file
|Included on student lesson web page.|
|Number of placemarks created and accuracy of description data.|
|Notes about the Lesson||Non-Digital Materials Needed||Digital Materials Needed|
I used this in a 45 minute 3rd-5th grade computer block class. The students were highly engaged and asked a lot of questions about the places they were going to. I didn't expect more than perhaps 5 placemarks to be created during the short time, and that was actually pushing it. But it did provide an excellent way to raise awareness about a wide range of topics, from earth processes to ancient societies to geographic awareness. In the end I had the students focus mostly on telling the continent, country and picture link in the placemarks. If I had a longer time with the kids I would have worried more about full completion of the assignement, but my goal of building global awareness was largely successful.
One more note, have the kids copy the place names directly from the assignment page into the 'Fly to' search field of Google Earth and it should return the correct location, although some are a bit off and require students to zoom out to see the place (Devil's Tower, Machu Picchu especially).
|none||computer with internet access, google earth, web browser.|
|Created By:||David||Date:||7:56:39 2008-1-27||
|Ideas for Extensions:||
Sorting landmarks into categories.
Sorting landmarks geographically.
Have kids select certain landmarks for further study and reporting.
Create digital vacation plans for a world tour with accompanying research about the landmarks.