Google Earth

Google Earth is an online tool that displays satellite images of varying resolution of the Earth's surface, this allows users to visually see things like cities and houses looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle. A newer version on Google Earth was introduced in 2009 which alloes users to zoom below the surface of the ocean and study the underwater depth in the third dimension of a lake or ocean floor. Through Google earth you are now also able to view the Moon and Mars in 3D.

It can be used in Maths when the students are learning about time differences throughout the world as it Google earth shows what time it is as different locations. In Science it can be used in great depth as you are able to view the Moon and Mars if doing a lesson on planets, you can go under water in order to learn about waves and the ocean floor. The implications for geography and social studies lessons are clear. Students can locate their own house or school, then zoom out to find their state, then country and continent, and finally, their planet. It is also an extremely powerful teaching tool to be able to visit all of the sites that students are studying. For example when students learn about the pyramids of ancient Egypt, they can actually see the pyramids. There is a 3D structure option that allows the children to understand the shape of the pyramids, and with the ruler tool they can measure the distance from the top of a pyramid to the ground or from one to another.

Google Earth can be used accross all KLA's as well. Earth Outreach provides connections to files that showcase environmental degradation and more. There are many downloadable tours available from the Google Earth Gallery, which provide an easy-to-use format for students and teachers to explore everything from the solar system to the under water world. With a bit of online exploration, a teacher could find a premade tour to teach just about anything, what isn’t already available could be made by the students.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45437000/jpg/_45437262_google_512.jpg

Wikipedia the free encylopida, Google earth, 209, Viewed on 19 August 2009, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Earth

Connections, Google Earth in the Elementary Classroom, 2009, viewed on 18 August 2009, http://cnx.org/content/m19821/latest/