Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Google Earth


Has anyone used Google Earth in their classroom to create a virtual field trip? I've been reading about teachers that have done this and it sounds really neat. I've downloaded the program onto my computer but I'm having a really hard time understanding it all.
My plan is to create a tour about dinosaurs that will go along with our lesson in reading in a couple of months when we talk about Barnum Brown and the discovery of the first T-Rex.
Any helpful info would be GREATLY appreciated! Leave a comment or email me :)

7 comments:

  1. I haven't used it but the technology liason at my school has been raving about for a while now. She's gotten me interested in it and I would like to try it in the next month or so. If I use it I'll let you know how it goes. I will say that the teachers at my school who have used it LOVE it.

    Ms. M
    www.msk1ell.blogspot.com

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  2. I have used google earth during Open House at the beginning of the year. We study maps/communities in second grade and we took one lesson to locate everyone's houses and mark them on the map. When Open House rolled around, I had the map displayed on my SmartBoard. The parents were able to see how close they live with the other families for play dates, get togethers, etc. It was a hit! :)

    I haven't used it for a virtual field trip though, I would love to!

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  3. I used it during Christmas around the world. We started from our school address and traveled to various parts of the world. The kids really like it, and I try to use it as much as possible. When we research a certain person or place, we almost always end up looking on Google Earth to see the exact location.

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  4. We used google earth all of the time. The kids love it! My k's love that they see themselves flying without ever leaving our room. My biggest problem is that they just want to keep looking up places again and again. Be sure to check out the addresses before you start using the program. Some locations seem to be harder to navigate than others!

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  5. I use Google Earth quite a bit. It is a great tool to use when we study landforms and sources of water so the students can get an accurate picture of how much of the earth is land and how much is water. I also use it when we are discussing the roles of country, state, and city. It makes it more clear to the students their relational size. We also use it when we study maps and directional words. Like Mrs. Perry (we used to teach at the same school), we did a Holidays Around the World tour that our technology coordinator created. I liked it because we were able to see the exact locations we researched about but also watch embedded videos related to the subject.

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  6. I love google earth! We used it for Christmas Around the World, the study of Africa, and a very creative teacher made a google earth to go along with a book about Texas. I teach at a low SES school and our students love it. I love the feature of being able to look at actual pictures of places. Google has also released a new program called sketch up that students make 3D models of buildings. Many have placed them into google earth. So then your students can see a 3D image of a building. We used it for the leaning tower of Pisa in our Christmas Around the World unit. My students loved it!

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  7. Thank you all so much! I've got some great ideas now!! :)

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